See _Biographie universelle_; Sir William Jones, _Works_ (vol. x., 1807); and the _Miscellanies_ of the Philobiblon Society (vol. iii., 1856-1857). For a list of his scattered writings see Quérard, _La France littéraire_.
ANSA (from Lat. _ansa_, a handle), in astronomy, one of the apparent ends of the rings of Saturn as seen in perspective from the earth: so-called because, in the earlier telescopes, they looked like handles projecting from the planet. In anatomy the word is applied to nervous structures which resemble loops. In archaeology it is used for the engraved and ornamented handle of a vase, which has often survived when the vase itself, being less durable, has disappeared.
ANSBACH, or ANSPACH, originally _Onolzbach_, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Rezat, 27 m. by rail S.W. of Nuremberg, and 90 m. N. of Munich. Pop. (1900) 17,555. It contains a palace, once the residence of the margraves of Anspach, with fine gardens, several churches, the finest of which are those dedicated to St John, containing the vault of the former margraves, and St Gumbert; a gymnasium; a picture gallery; a municipal museum and a special technical school. Ansbach possesses monuments to the poets August, Count von Platen-Hallermund, and Johann Peter Uz, who were born here, and to Kaspar Hauser, who died here. The chief manufactures are machinery, toys, woollen, cotton, and half-silk stuffs, embroideries, earthenware, tobacco, cutlery and playing cards. There is considerable trade in grain, wool and flax. In 1791 the last margrave of Anspach sold his principality to Frederick William II., king of Prussia; it was transferred by Napoleon to Bavaria in 1806, an act which was confirmed by the congress of Vienna in 1815.
ANSDELL, RICHARD (1815-1885), English painter, was born in Liverpool, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840. He was a painter of genre, chiefly animal and sporting pictures, and he became very popular, being elected A.R.A. in 1861 and R.A. in 1870. His "Stag at Bay" (1846), "The Combat" (1847), and "Battle of the Standard" (1848), represent his best work, in which he showed himself a notable follower of Landseer.
ANSELM (c. 1033-1109), archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Aosta in Piedmont. His family was accounted noble, and was possessed of considerable property. Gundulph, his father, was by birth a Lombard, and seems to have been a man of harsh and violent temper; his mother, Ermenberga, was a prudent and virtuous woman, from whose careful religious training the young Anselm derived much benefit. At the age of fifteen he desired to enter a convent, but he could not obtain his father's consent. Disappointment brought on an illness, on his recovery from which he seems for a time to have given up his studies, and to have plunged into the gay life of the world. During this time his mother died, and his father's harshness became unbearable. He left home, and with only one attendant crossed the Alps, and wandered through Burgundy and France. Attracted by the fame of his countryman, Lanfranc, then prior of Bec, he entered Normandy, and, after spending some time at Avranches, settled at the monastery of Bec. There, at the age of twenty-seven, he became a monk; three years later, when Lanfranc was promoted to the abbacy of Caen, he was elected prior. This office he held for fifteen years, and then, in 1078, on the death of Herlwin, the warrior monk who had founded the monastery, he was made abbot. Under his rule Bec became the first seat of learning in Europe, a result due not more to his intellectual powers than to the great moral influence of his noble character and kindly discipline. It was during these quiet years at Bec that Anselm wrote his first philosophical and religious works, the dialogues on Truth and Freewill, and the two celebrated treatises, the _Monologion_ and _Proslogion_.