ANA, in matters of literature, a Latin termination, adopted into the titles of several books in other languages.—Anas, or books in ana, are collections of the memorable sayings of persons of learning and wit; much the same with what we otherwise called table-talk.
Wolfsus has given the history of books in ana, in the preface to the Casaboniana. He there observes, that though such titles be new, the thing itself is very old; that Xenophon's books of the deeds and sayings of Socrates, as well as the dialogues of Plato, are Socraticana; that the apophthegms of the philosophers collected by Diogenes Laertius, the sentences of Pythagoras and those of Epictetus, the works of Athenaeus, Stobaeus, and divers others, are so many anas. Even the Gemara of the Jews, with several other oriental writings, according to Wolfsus, properly belong to the same class. To this head of ana may likewise be referred the Orphica, the Pythagoræa, Æsopica, Pyrrhonea, &c.
Scaligerana was the first piece that appeared with a
title in Ana. It was composed by Ifan de Vassan, a young Champanois, recommended to Jos. Scaliger by Casabon. Being much with Scaliger, who was daily visited by the men of learning at Leyden, De Vassan wrote down whatever things of any moment he heard Scaliger say. And thus arose the Scaligerana, which was not printed till many years after, at Geneva in 1666. Patin. Let. 431.—Soon after came the Perro-niana, Thuana, Naudæana, Patineana, Sorberiana, Menagiana, Anti-Menagiana, Euretiana, Chevreauna, Leibnitziana, Arlequiniana, Poggiana, &c.