Another good answer.  Your answer is counter-intuitive though because
the Eastern Empire already had the infrastucture Charlemagne had to
rebuild in the West.  From reading the Socialist Newspaper article, it
seems to me if Byzantium had good libraries before the 1st Crusader
then the Crusaders  destroyed as much knowledge in Constantinople as
they "disseminnated".  There is also the fact that the Byzantium
Empire was quite corrupt.  It's quite possible that this corruption
prevented the libaries there from ever reaching their full potential.
The result is,that like Cahill says, it's the humble monks in the West
to whom who owe most of our knowledge of the ancient world.

This is an excellent answer.  Too bad you didn't answer my first
qustion on the Provenance of Ancient Manuscripts.  That researcher did
a good job, but he's not as good as you are.

Dear chromedome-ga,  thanks for your information.  You have given me
plenty of sources to work on.  Your response was speedy and helpful. 
My next question will be more specific!

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Good description and lengthly description.

well-written and enthusiastic

I was able to find all that data myself, but thanks for trying.

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You didn't answer my question.  If you couldn't, why did you waste my time?