Introducing death: a 15th century Croatian Glagolitic literary text.

We explored the notions of life and death as perceived and presented in a 15th century Croatian literary text, Slovo Mestra Polikarpa, in which master Polikarp, a well-learned man of medieval times, engages in a lengthy dialogue with Death itself. This contrast/debate is a rare piece of medieval literature, not only by its Old Croatian language, but also by the angular Glagolitic script in which it was written. As a part of Croatian cultural heritage, it is deeply rooted in and clearly belongs to the common context of Western European medieval views on life, health, ailing, and death. A medieval perspective on such issues might be interesting to broad readership and, in many aspects, to medical professionals, whose everyday practice necessarily involves not only practical and scientific, but also moral, philosophical, and religious deliberations about life and death.