Teodoro Metochita e Gregorio Palamas. In margine a un episodio riportato da quest'ultimo e da Filoteo Kokkinos

Scholars distinguish two lines in the Byzantine cultural and spiritual world of the 14th century: onthe one hand the world of intellectuals and “humanists” and on the other hand the “monastic party,” reserved if not hostile toward the secular culture, represented by Gregory Palamas and designed as Hesychasm. This bipolar scheme, in the form elaborated and popularized by John Meyendorff, has been taken up by scholars who have also evoked a meeting between Theodore Metochites and Gregory Palamas as a sign of a period characterized by the tentative concord between “humanists” and monks. The article is a review of the available sources on the episode and urges against drawing general conclusions about the cultural and spiritual life of Byzantium in the 14th century and the alleged “armistice” between monks and humanists.