What was the role of the Byzantine Empire in the cultural development of Latin Europe during the period of Romanesque art? In Byzantium, almost the entire body of works from ancient Greece was copied. In the imperial capital, ancient culture continued to serve as the foundation of school education.

This Byzantine material was transmitted to royal courts and throughout Europe from the 10th to the 12th century, in the valleys of the Meuse and the Rhône, in Germany, and even in the kingdoms of Scandinavia. The profound Sylvain Guggenheim, through this magnificent study of his, restores the historical truth, attributing to Byzantium the credit for the transmission of ancient knowledge to the entire Western World.