  Philosophical treatises, vaguely defined as prose monologues on particular themes arguing personal views, are found predominantly from the three most philosophically productive periods (see section 1.1). They were composed by numerous authors and for various purposes, some of them, no doubt, strictly pedagogical or scholarly; but we will here only mention two examples of a slightly more topical and literary character. The philosophical essays (Logoi) of Nikephoros Choumnos (c. 1250/55–1327) are written in a personal but hardly original style—much in keeping with the views propounded in them—which does not always correspond to the author’s professed ideal of clarity. Those of Theodore Metochites (Sēmeiōseis gnōmikai, c. 1326) represent a further move in the direction of essays in the strict and narrow sense. Inspired by Plutarch and anticipating Montaigne, Metochites seems to have conceived of them as adding up to a ‘self-portrait as a philosopher’, theorizing about, and obviously trying to put into practice, the proper style for philosophy.