Starting with an analysis of a curious description of a Byzantine church’s middle and upper registers, including the Dodekaorton painted scenes, in the 12th-century Old French poem Voyage of Charlemagne to Jerusalem and Constantinople, the present study explores this parody’s links with its Medieval Latin sources of inspiration –and with the “Descriptio qualiter” written in the abbey of Saint-Denis in particular–, focusing on the use of late antique heritage in 11th and 12th century narratives about events happening during Carolingian times. The confusion between Byzantium and Antiquity is a cultural reflection of a wider mind-set, linked with the ideas of “translatio imperii” and “translatio studii”.