The name anorthite was given to the Vesuvian mineral by G. Rose in 1823, on account of its anorthic crystallization. The species had, however, been earlier described by the comte de Bournon under the name indianite, this name being applied to a greyish or reddish granular mineral forming the matrix of corundum from the Carnatic in India. Several unimportant varieties have been distinguished. (L. J. S.)
ANQUETIL, LOUIS PIERRE (1723-1808), French historian, was born in Paris, on the 21st of February 1723. He entered the congregation of Sainte-Geneviève, where he took holy orders and became professor of theology and literature. Later, he became director of the seminary at Reims, where he wrote his _Histoire civile et politique de Reims_ (3 vols., 1756-1757), perhaps his best work. He was then director of the college of Senlis, where he composed his _Esprit de la Ligue ou histoire politique des troubles de la Fronde pendant le XVI^e et le XVII^e siècles_ (1767). During the Reign of Terror he was imprisoned at St Lazare; there he began his _Précis de l'histoire universelle_, afterwards published in nine volumes. On the establishment of the national institute he was elected a member of the second group (moral and political sciences), and was soon afterwards employed in the office of the ministry of foreign affairs, profiting by his experience to write his _Motifs des guerres et des traités de paix sous Louis XIV., Louis XV, et Louis XVI._ He is said to have been asked by Napoleon to write his _Histoire de France_ (14 vols., 1805), a mediocre compilation at second or third hand, with the assistance of de Mézeray and of Paul François Velly (1709-1759). This work, nevertheless, passed through numerous editions, and by it his name is remembered. He died on the 6th of September 1808.