The culture of the Latin Western world developed in uninterrupted association with humanistic learning, which was founded on the writings of classical authors adopted by the Church, and in continuous contact with the Greek East, which was fostered by political and economic relations and was greatly strengthened by the crusades. The knowledge of the Greek language, however, gradually diminished in the West, until it was revived by the endeavours of the Humanists. But it never disappeared altogether. In Italy there existed for a long time a small area of Greek population in Calabria and in Palermo in Sicily there was a Greek colony still in the 11th century. Apart from this, there were some individuals, who went to Greece to learn the Greek language and study the Greek culture.