Introduzione a Table Ronde «La mosaïque byzantine et sa diffusion (XIe-XIIe siècles): travail, techniques et matériaux, restauration», XXIIe Congrès International des Études Byzantines, Sofia 22-27 août 2011

Opening the Round Table La mosaïque byzantine et sa diffusion (XIe-XIIe siècles): travail, techniques et matériaux, restaurations (XXIIe Congrès International des Études Byzantines, Sofia 2011), the author underlines the importance as a source of the wall mosaics executed in areas out of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire between the 11th and 12th centuries. They are especially relevant in order to reconstruct the lost production of mosaics carried out in the capital by workshops active in the same period; these were responsible of spreading throughout the Mediterranean what was considered a sort of ‘national art’. From the point of view of the history of restoration, the author examines the main stages which have gradually led, from the 18th to the 20th century, to a better knowledge of the materials, techniques and organization of the mosaic working site in the Middle Byzantine age.