In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and genre-based anthologies.

Complete collections of works are often called "complete works" or "opera omnia" (Latin equivalent).

The word entered the English language in the 17th century, from the Greek word, ἀνθολογία (anthologic, literally "a collection of blossoms", from ἄνθος, ánthos, flower), a reference to one of the earliest known anthologies, the Garland (Στέφανος, stéphanos), the introduction to which compares each of its anthologized poets to a flower. That Garland by Meléagros of Gadara formed the kernel for what has become known as the Greek Anthology.

Florilegium, a Latin derivative for a collection of flowers, was used in medieval Europe for an anthology of Latin proverbs and textual excerpts. Shortly before anthology had entered the language, English had begun using florilegium as a word for such a collection.

The Palatine Anthology, discovered in the Palatine Library, Heidelberg in 1606, is a collection of Greek poems and epigrams that was based on the lost 10th Century Byzantine collection of Constantinus Cephalas, which in turn was based on older anthologies. In The Middle Ages, European collections of florilegia became popular, bringing together extracts from various Christian and pagan philosophical texts. These evolved into commonplace books and miscellanies, including proverbs, quotes, letters, poems and prayers.

Songes and Sonettes, usually called Tottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. It was published by Richard Tottel in 1557 in London and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century. A widely read series of political anthologies, Poems on Affairs of State, began its publishing run in 1689, finishing in 1707.

In Britain, one of the earliest national poetry anthologies to appear was The British Muse (1738), compiled by William Oldys. Thomas Percy's influential Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), was the first of the great ballad collections, responsible for the ballad revival in English poetry that became a significant part of the Romantic movement. William Enfield's The Speaker; Or, Miscellaneous Pieces was published in 1774 and was a mainstay of 18th Century schoolrooms. Important nineteenth century anthologies included Palgrave's Golden Treasury (1861), Edward Arber's Shakespeare Anthology (1899) and the first edition of Arthur Quiller Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse (1900).

In East Asian tradition, an anthology was a recognized form of compilation of a given poetic form. It was assumed that there was a cyclic development: any particular form, say the tanka in Japan, would be introduced at one point in history, be explored by masters during a subsequent time, and finally be subject to popularisation (and a certain dilution) when it achieved widespread recognition. In this model, which derives from Chinese tradition, the object of compiling an anthology was to preserve the best of a form, and cull the rest.