chrestomathy \kres-TOM-uh-thee\,
noun:
A collection of selected literary passages.
I had learned to read Sanscrit and to translate easy passages in the chrestomathy, and devoted myself with special zeal to the study of the Latin grammar and prosody.
-- Georg Ebers, "The Story of My Life from Childhood to Manhood"
This little chrestomathy preserves almost the only words of Atticus to have survived from antiquity.
-- Peter White, "Cicero in Letters"
Chrestomathy literally means "useful to learn" in Greek, from the roots chres- meaning "to use" and math- meaning "to learn."
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