ABSTRACT
This chapter re-examines the Western perceptions of Byzantium as expressed in texts of the early Crusade period. It seeks to offer some explanations for the appearance, spread and persistence of negative views towards the empire and its people, but also to show that the Western attitude was more complex and multi-faceted than it initially appears. It is, in fact, a matter of diverse theological, strategic and political interests, involving among others the Union of the Churches and the creation of the principality of Antioch; but it also concerns wider issues of historical writing and textual transmission, as subsequent copying and circulation of the First Crusade chronicles in the early twelfth century extended the messages – both positive and negative - contained therein.
