delectus

plural delectuses

1. obsoleteAn elementary reader (collection of passages) for learners of a language

   I am convinced that for [t]his purpose the best way would be to disregard classical Latin entirely, to use neither Cornelius Nepos, nor Eutropius, nor Cæsar, nor any delectus from them, but to use the Latin Bible, the Vulgate.

   1872, Matthew Arnold, “General Report for the Year 1872”, in Sir Francis Sanford, editor, Reports on Elementary Schools 1852-1882

   1 more example

   If she spoke with any keenness of interest to Mr. Casaubon, he heard her with an air of patience as if she had given a quotation from the Delectus familiar to him from his tender years, and sometimes mentioned curtly what ancient sects or personages had held similar ideas, as if there were too much of that sort in stock already; at other times he would inform her that she was mistaken, and reassert what her remark had questioned.

   1871-2, George Eliot, Middlemarch, volume I, book IV, chapter 37