The technology of exact repeatability was a stress that 
the Romans introduced into the Greek visual analysis. This 
stress on the continuous, uniform line with its indifference to 
the oral values of pluralistic organization was, in the view of 
Ivins (pp. 4­5) effectively transmitted to and by the Dark Ages:

          Historians until very recent times have been literary 
     men and philologues. As students of the past they have 
     rarely found anything they were not looking for. They 
     have been so full of wonder at what the Greeks said, that 
     they have paid little attention to what the Greeks did not 
     do or know. They have been so full of horror at what the 
     Dark Ages did not say, that they have paid no attention 
     to what they did do and know. Modern research, by men 
     who are aware of low subjects like economics and 
     technology, is rapidly changing our ideas about these