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General Introduction
"Knowing Pythagoras and Aristotle and Plato a person can grasp the truth". Barlaam the Calabrian "a classical education helps the natural knowledge (of man about things), but it can never become itself intellectual knowledge, unless it joins with faith and the love of God and, even more, unless it regenerate itself from this love and from the grace that emanates from this love, and unless it becomes different from what it was before; that is new, Godlike, pure, peaceful, tolerant, amenable, full of words that enlighten those that listen to them and bearing good fruit, knowledge which is also called wisdom of God..." Gregory Palamas
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hese two above mentioned contradictory texts reflect the spirit and the characteristics of the cultural life of the Late Byzantine period. Through many aspects of art and various sections of the intellectual world, we shall follow the development of that life, which is characterized by dynamism, originality and, above all, creativity.