The 14th century, especially its second half, is one of the most turbulent periods in the history of Venetian-ruled Crete, but also one of the darkest; a time of bloody revolutions and lively religious conflicts, but also, perhaps not so significant, yet interesting and worthy of further study, spiritual life. One of the representatives of this spiritual life, one of the greatest, is Joseph Filagris or Philagrios, whose personality remained almost unknown until today, even to the specialized researchers of Cretan history.

[...] I classify the findings of the research into two parts (A and B) divided into chapters; in Part A, I study everything related to Filagris' life, his position in the Cretan society of the time, his attitude towards Byzantium, his relationships with Anthimos, Vryennios, Kydonis, and Kalekas, as well as his attitude towards the Venetians during the difficult times for Crete and Byzantium, in the years of the late 14th century. In Part B, I describe in detail codex no. 30 of the Bibliotheca Angelica, as well as codex Burney no. 50, autograph codes of Philargis, and study his work by discussing all the relevant problems, such as dating of the work, place of composition, authenticity, etc. At the end, I add an appendix, where I provide various tables, mainly related to other authors used by Philargis, and also indexes of manuscripts, main names, terms, and things. [...]

(from the author's preface)