This book presents the poem "Mourning of Death, Vain Life and Return to God" by Giustos Glycos, a 16th-century work of moralistic content, widely circulated during the post-Byzantine period, and is rendered in modern Greek.
The Introduction and the two Appendices of the book examine the function of the work within the society of its time, that is, in relation to the surrounding social, cultural, and religious atmosphere (Late Middle Ages, pre-Reformation period), which allows for the transplantation of new ideas from the heterodox West to Venetian-held Hellenism starting from the early post-Byzantine period. It also explores the complex relationships that the work develops within the modern Greek, popular and scholarly, poetic tradition.
In this book, contemporary readers will find two particularly relevant issues for reflection: the relationships between learned and popular culture, and secondly, the relationships between the culture of the clergy and popular culture—issues that remain open for thought and interest.
The book aims to contribute to a renewed understanding of Greek medieval history, which includes not only traditional elements, events, institutions, and personalities but also mindsets and aesthetic values.
It also proposes the abolition of boundaries between pure history, the history of literature and languages, and the history of art; something for which the scientific community has long been prepared. The ultimate goal is the establishment of a history of post-Byzantine literature as a history of ideas of the Post-Byzantium, which could be the subject of more advanced research.
The hope that we are no longer so far from such an endeavor is pervasive throughout the book.
