Michael Glycas

Neville (2018:206-207) wrote about Michael Glycas (12th century CE) as follows:

Michael Glykas was a writer and theologian active in the second half of the twelfth century. He served as an imperial secretary in the court of Manuel Komnenos (r. 1143– 1180) and earned the title grammatikos. In addition to his history, Glykas wrote a long theological treatise in the form of questions and answers, a refutation of Manuel Komnenos’s defense of astrology, various poems, and collected proverbs. Some of his answers to theological questions appear to refer to events that occurred in the 1180s. Glykas’s history was written after that of Manasses, which he used.

Glykas wrote the poem “Verses while in Prison,” leading some scholars to believe that at one time he had been imprisoned. The manuscript of the poem provides a note explaining that Glykas had been unjustly blinded. Given what we currently understand about twelfth-century literary culture and poems similar to Glykas’s, it now seems more likely that the poem depicts a fictional scenario and that the “I” speaking in the poem does not reveal information about Glykas’s own life. Scholars trying to find a political context for Glykas’s imprisonment have supposed that he had been linked to one of Manuel’s advisors, Theodore Styppiotes, who was accused either of treason, or of practicing astrology and dark magic, and blinded in 1159. Glykas’s continued career as a writer into the 1160s indicates that he was not blinded, casting doubt on the witness of the manuscript note. It is not necessary to assume an imprisonment.

Book 4 of Glykas' Chronicle covers the time period from Constantine (r. 306-337 CE) until Alexios Komnenos (r. 1081-1118 CE) (Neville, 2018:206). Glycas showed an interest in Natural History (Neville, 2018:206).