# Chrestomathy

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{{Short description|Collection of literary passages for studying}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2016}}
A '''chrestomathy''' ({{IPAc-en|k|r|ɛ|ˈ|s|t|ɒ|m|ə|θ|i}} {{respell|kreh|STOM|ə|thee}}; from the [Ancient Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek) {{lang|grc|χρηστομάθεια}} {{grc-transl|χρηστομάθεια}} 'desire of learning', from {{lang|grc|χρηστός}} {{grc-transl|χρηστός}} 'useful' + {{lang|grc|μανθάνω}} {{grc-transl|μανθάνω}} 'learn')<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 23, 2026 |title=Chrestomathy |url=https://www.wordgenius.com/words/chrestomathy |website=Word Genius}}</ref> is a collection of selected literary passages (usually from a single author); a selection of literary passages from a foreign language assembled for studying the language; or a text in various languages, used especially as an aid in learning a subject.
thumb|A "phono-chrestomathy" of Tatar music
In [philology](/source/philology) or in the study of [literature](/source/literature), it is a type of reader that presents a sequence of example texts, selected to demonstrate the development of [language](/source/language) or [literary style](/source/writing_style). It is different from an [anthology](/source/anthology) because of its [didactic purpose](/source/didactic_method).

== Examples ==
* [Bernhard Dorn](/source/Bernhard_Dorn), ''A Chrestomathy of the [Pushtū](/source/Pashto_language) or Afghan language'', St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1847
* [H. L. Mencken](/source/H._L._Mencken), ''A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of his Choicest Writing'', New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 1949
* [L. L. Zamenhof](/source/L._L._Zamenhof), {{lang|eo|Fundamenta Krestomatio de la Lingvo Esperanto}}, Paris: Hachette, 1903<ref>{{cite web |last=Zamenhof |first=L. L. |author-link=L. L. Zamenhof |date=1 June 2005 |title=Fundamenta Krestomatio |via=Project Gutenberg |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8224}}</ref>
* [Edward Ullendorff](/source/Edward_Ullendorff), ''A [Tigrinya](/source/Tigrinya_language) Chrestomathy'', Stuttgart: Steiner Werlag Wiesbaden GmbH, 1985.
* ''Bilingual Greek-Latin Grammar'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Anemi - Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies |website=anemi.lib.uoc.gr |url=https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/0/8/6/metadata-155-0000034.tkl}}</ref> by [Georgios Dimitriou](/source/Georgios_Dimitriou), 1785, that contained personal observations, [Epistles](/source/Epistles) and [Maxims](/source/Maxim_(saying)), as well as biographies of notable men.<ref>{{cite book |last=Merry |first=Bruce |year=2004 |title=Encyclopedia of modern Greek literature |edition=1. publ. |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn. [u.a.] |isbn=978-0-313-30813-0 |pages=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&pg=PA394}}</ref>
* ''[Rosetta Code](/source/Rosetta_Code)'', "a programming chrestomathy site", which "present[s] solutions to the same task in as many different [computer] languages as possible".
* ''The Ibis Chrestomathy'', dealing "solely with words that have a claim to naturalization within the English language".<ref>{{cite web |first=Amitav |last=Ghosh |title=Chrestomathy |website=AmitavGhosh.com |url=http://www.amitavghosh.com/chrestomathy.html |access-date=2016-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024044625/http://www.amitavghosh.com/chrestomathy.html |archive-date=2016-10-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Heather Christle, ''The Crying Book'', Catapult: 2019. Explores the subject of crying and tears in a numbered series of extremely short essays.

== See also ==
* {{section link|Lord's Prayer#Use as a language comparison tool}}
* [Parallel text](/source/Parallel_text)
* [Text corpus](/source/Text_corpus)

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Anthologies

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chrestomathy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrestomathy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrestomathy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.