In the Université catholique de Louvain's 'Laboratory for Technical Examination in the Visual Arts', a professor, his assistant and students examine the peculiar painting by a 16th-century Flemish master that they have just brought to light. This meticulously guided tour deep into our cultural past, to the heart of the great burgeoning of humanism that we call the Renaissance, will propel us steadily into the future of a Europe in the process of rebuilding itself : the spirit of Bologna.

By publishing this English translation of Le Masque de l'espérance (Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2004) as Guarded Hope, the town of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve hopes to bring to an international readership this tale which unfolds on both sides of the border between the Germanic and Romance cultures, and which demonstrates both the singular identity and the cultural diversity of Europe, our shared past and our future as Europeans.