Ana

'Ana' is both a suffix and, in older bibliography, a noun. As a suffix it names a genre of compilation: Johnsoniana is the body of anecdotes, sayings, and observations of Samuel Johnson gathered by his contemporaries; Boswelliana is the corresponding body about Boswell; Erasmiana about Erasmus; and so on. As a noun, ana denoted the whole class of such books — the librarian's shelf of compilations 'from the mouth of' notable men and women.

The form flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, when a well-known figure's conversation was regarded as a public asset that friends and acquaintances had a semi-public duty to preserve. Books titled 'Scaligerana', 'Menagiana', 'Voltairiana' fill the catalogues of that period. Modern practice — the interview, the profile, the biography — has absorbed the function, but the compact 'ana' form has largely gone out of use.

For quotation research, ana are a mixed inheritance. They preserve material that would otherwise be lost, but many contain apocryphal or embellished entries; the compiler's fidelity is often unverifiable, and later ana borrow freely from earlier ones without acknowledgment. A saying that appears first in a nineteenth-century Johnsoniana and not in any source dating from Johnson's lifetime should be treated as an ana attribution — real evidence, but of a second order.

Common mistake: citing 'Johnsoniana' as if it were a single primary source rather than a bibliographic label covering many compilations of unequal reliability. Responsible citation names the specific compilation, its date, and — where possible — the compiler's own source.