1 The number of surviving manuscripts of Robert of Torigni's two main historical works evidences their popularity from as early as the late twelfth century onward. In his nineteenth-century edition of Robert's Chronica, Leopold Delisle identifies eighteen core manuscripts in which the text survives; see Robert of Torigni, Chronique de Robert de Torigni: Abbé du Mont-Saint-Michel , ed. Delisle, L., 2 vols. (Rouen, 1872–73), 1:liii–liv. Howlett, Richard confirms this number in his 1889 English edition while listing separately the manuscripts containing the so-called Continuatio Beccensis; see Robert of Torigni, The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Michael-in-Peril-of-the-Sea, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I , ed. Howlett, R., vol. IV.4, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, vol. 82.4 (London, 1889), xxxvii–xxxviii. The number of surviving manuscripts of Robert's redaction of William of Jumièges's, Gesta Normannorum ducum is even larger, with the work's most recent editor, Elisabeth van Houts, counting no fewer than twenty-three documents; see William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni , ed. van Houts, E. M. C., 2 vols., Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1992–95), 1:cix–cxix; and van Houts, E. M. C., “The Gesta Normannorum Ducum: A History Without an End,” Anglo-Norman Studies 3 (1980): 106–18. The amount of modern scholarship on Robert and his work is too extensive to be listed in full here.Google Scholar I am thankful to Thomas Bisson and Michael Gullick for sharing with me their insights into the manuscripts of Mont-Saint-Michel and reading a draft of this article. I am very much indebted to Tessa Webber for sharing with me her knowledge concerning the analysis of Anglo-Norman hands during the twelfth century and for reading various drafts of this article, and to Jaakko Tahkokallio for sharing excerpts of his PhD thesis with me and advising me on the date of Leiden BPL 20. Work on this article was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).Google Scholar

2 Bates, D., “Robert of Torigni and the Historia Anglorum,” in The English and Their Legacy, 900–1200: Essays in Honour of Ann Williams , ed. Roffe, D. (Woodbridge, UK, 2012), 175–84, at 175.Google Scholar

3 See Robert of Torigni, Chronique , 2:i–xix; Robert of Torigni, Chronicle, viii–xxxvii; and William of Jumièges et al., Gesta, 1:lxxvii–xci. More recent studies shedding light on Robert's life and his writings include van Houts, E. M. C., “Robert of Torigni as Genealogist,” Studies in Medieval History: Presented to R. Allen Brown , ed. Harper-Bill, C., Holdsworth, C. J., and Nelson, J. L. (Woodbridge, UK, 1989), 215–34; Stirnemann, P., “Two Twelfth-Century Bibliophiles and Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum,” Viator 24 (1993): 121–42; and Chibnall, M., “Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni,” in Vie montoise et rayonnement intellectuel du Mont Saint-Michel , ed. Foreville, R., Millénaire monastique du Mont Saint-Michel: Mélanges commémoratifs, vol. 2 (Paris, 1967), 133–40.Google Scholar

4 Bates, , “Robert of Torigni,” 175. Also see William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta, 1:lxxvii.Google Scholar

5 See my argument in Pohl, B., “When Did Robert of Torigni First Receive Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum, and Why Does it Matter?” Haskins Society Journal 26 (2015, forthcoming).Google Scholar

6 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles,” 121.Google Scholar

7 Rouse, R. H. and Rouse, M. A., “‘Potens in opere et sermone’: Philip, Bishop of Bayeux, and His Books,” in Authentic Witnesses: Approaches to Medieval Texts and Manuscripts , ed. Rouse, R. H. and Rouse, M. A., Publications in Medieval Studies (Notre Dame, IN, 1991), 323–59, at 323. Giles Constable's statement that “by the second half of the eleventh century it [Le Bec] had a good library and a famous school” is probably slightly optimistic with regard to the actual extent of the abbey's book collection at that point; see Constable, G., ed., Three Treatises from Bec on the Nature of Monastic Life (Toronto, 2008), 17. For useful discussions on when we should speak of monastic “libraries” vs. “book collections” during the period under consideration, see Thomson, R. M., “Monastic and Cathedral Book Production,” in Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 2, 1100–1400 , ed. Morgan, N. J. and Thomson, R. M. (Cambridge, 2008), 136–67; Kottje, R., “Klosterbibliotheken und monastische Kultur in der zweiten Hälfte des 11. Jahrhunderts,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 80 (1969): 145–62; and Webber, T., “Monastic and Cathedral Book Collections in the Late Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries,” in Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, vol. 1, To 1640 , ed. Leedham-Green, E. and Webber, T. (Cambridge, 2006), 109–25.Google Scholar

8 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles,” 123.Google Scholar

9 Lanfranc of Bec, , The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc , ed. Knowles, D. and Brooke, C. N. L., Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 2002), 122–23: “De universis monasterii libris curam gerat, et eos in custodia sua habeat, si eius studii et scientiae sit, ut eorum custodia ei commentaria debeat.” Google Scholar

10 The latter seems to be suggested by Stirnemann, “Bibliophiles,” 137, on the basis of scribal and artistic similarities between manuscripts produced at Le Bec around the time when Robert was prior and at Mont-Saint-Michel during the period of Robert's abbacy.Google Scholar

11 See ibid., 140, where it is argued convincingly that Paris Lat. 6042, a copy of Henry of Huntingdon's, Historia Anglorum , was borrowed from Le Bec during Robert's abbacy but never returned.Google Scholar

12 The most complete list of manuscripts to have once been held at Mont-Saint-Michel is, to the best of my knowledge, still provided by Nortier, G., “La Bibliothèque de l'abbaye du Mont Saint-Michel: Les bibliothèques médiévales des abbayes bénédictines de Normandie,” Revue Mabillon 47 (1957): 135–68; and eadem, Les bibliothèques médiévales des abbayes bénédictines de normandie: Fecamp, Le Bec, Le Mont Saint-Michel, Saint-Évroul, Lyre, Jumièges, Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Ouen, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1971), 83–94.Google Scholar

13 Paris, BNF MS fr. 18948, fol. 55v. Jean Huynes's work was later edited from his manuscript as Huynes, J., Histoire générale de l'abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel au Péril de la Mer , ed. de Robillard de Beaurepaire, E., 2 vols. (Rouen, 1872–73), 1:174.Google Scholar

14 Robert of Torigni, Chronique (n. 1 above), 2:xiii–xix; and Robert of Torigni, Chronicle (n. 1 above), xvi–xvii.Google Scholar

15 Nortier, , Bibliothèques , 68.Google Scholar

16 Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens,” 323.Google Scholar

17 There is an editorial project currently conducted by the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and dedicated to the study of the False Capitularies of Benedictus Levita, which also features a description of Avranches 145; see http://www.benedictus.mgh.de/haupt.htm, accessed 27 November 2013. Also see Seckel, E., “Benedictus Levita decurtatus et excerptus: Eine Studie zu den Handschriften der falschen Kapitularien,” in Festschrift für Heinrich Brunner zum fünfzigjährigen Doktorjubiläum am 8. April 1914 (Munich, 1914), 377–464.Google Scholar

18 A list of contents for Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 145 is included by a contemporary hand on the flyleaf of the manuscript itself. Similar lists of contents feature in other Mont-Saint-Michel manuscripts as well. These include, for example, Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek MS BPL 20, fol. 1v; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 66, fol. 1v; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 68, flyleaf; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 81, fol. 1v; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 145, flyleaf; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 162, fol. 79v.Google Scholar

19 “Iste liber est sancti michaelis de periculo maris quem domnus robertus abbas fecit fieri. Quicumque librum istum furatus fuerit, anathema sit.” Google Scholar

20 Examples include Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 109, fol. 209r (“Liber sancti Michaelis. Qui furatus fuerit anatema sit”); Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 87, fols. 40v–41r (“Liber sancti michaelis qui furatus fuerit anathema sit”); Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 61, fol. 344v (“liber sancti michaelis quicumque fuerit anatema sit”). What is interesting, moreover, is that in Avranches 61 this warning is repeated more or less verbatim (though partially cropped) on the next folio (fol. 345r), reading “Liber san[cti michaelis] quicumque furatus fuerit anatemasit. Hoc ego normandus scripsi.” It is rare indeed to find the scribe identifying himself by name (“Normandus”). (There is, to the best of my knowledge, no record of a scribe called Normandus at Mont-Saint-Michel during the period of Robert's abbacy. Alternative candidates include Normandus de Doué, Bishop of Angers [1148–53], as might be suggested by a drawing occurring right next to the warning on fol. 345r and showing a man's face wearing a mitre. Bishop Normandus was one of the protagonists involved in building of the Cathedral of Saint-Maurice, where he is remembered in a Latin epitaph [“Obit bonae memoriae Normandus de Doe episcopus noster qui, de navi ecclesiae nostrae trabibus pro vetustate ruinam minantibus ablatis, voluturas lapideas miro effectus edificare coepit in quo opere octingentos libras expendit”].) Google Scholar

21 The earliest such list was compiled in 1639 and survives in Paris, BNF MS Lat. 13071, fols. 107r–114v. See Nortier, , Bibliothèques , 63.Google Scholar

22 The first book list (fol. 1v) bears the title “TITVLI LIBRORVM quos dedit Philippus Episcopus Baiocensis Ecclesiae Becci,” while the second and longer one (fols. 2r–3r) is entitled “TITULI LIBRORVM BECCENSIS ALMARII.” An image of the list on fol. 1v is reproduced in Nortier, , Bibliothèques , n.p. (= third plate between 8–9). Note, however, that Nortier misleadingly labels this image “fol. 2v°.” Transcriptions of both lists have been published by Ravaisson, M. F., Rapports au ministre de l'Instruction publique sur les bibliothèques des départments de l'Ouest (Paris, 1841), 375–95; Becker, G., Catalogi Bibliothecarum Antiqui (Bonn, 1885), 199–202 and 257–66; and Omont, H., Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, Départments, vol. 2, Rouen (Paris, 1888), 385–98. Note, however, that Becker and Omont use diverging numerations when counting the items featured in the two lists.Google Scholar

23 Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens” (n. 7 above), 323.Google Scholar

24 Delisle suggests that Robert, while working on the Chronica more or less continuously from 1150 until the end of his life in 1186, published seven subsequent redactions of the text in 1150, 1156, 1157, 1169, 1182, 1184, and 1186; see Robert of Torigni, Chronique (n. 1 above), 2:xiii.Google Scholar

25 I adopt the latter definition of medieval publishing (Lat. edere) from the compelling case study by Sharpe, R., “Anselm as Author: Publishing in the Late Eleventh Century,” Journal of Medieval Latin 19 (2009): 1–87.Google Scholar

26 Robert of Torigni, , Chronicle (n. 1 above), xvi. Howlett lists the following manuscripts as being written by Robert, : Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 211 (Annals of Mont-Saint-Michel); Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 213 (Rubrica abbreviata); Paris, BNF MS Lat. 6042 (Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum); Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 210 (Cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel); Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 159 (Robert's Chronica); and Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 80 (Preface to the Works of St. Augustine).Google Scholar

27 Robert of Torigni, Chronicle , xvi.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., lxi.Google Scholar

29 Ibid..Google Scholar

30 Ibid..Google Scholar

31 The complex codicology and paleography of Avranches 210 are still subject of debate amongst scholars. Until such time as we are able to identify, with sufficient certainty, the various stages within the Cartulary's production and distinguish more confidently between individual scribes and their respective hands, any argument based on the paleographical evidence of Avranches 210 will have to remain tentative. Important groundwork for such an inquiry has been laid by Keats-Rohan, K. S. B., “Bibliothèque municipal d'Avranches, 210: Cartulary of Mont Saint Michel,” Anglo-Norman Studies 21 (1997): 95–112; and eadem, The Cartulary of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Donington, UK, 2006).Google Scholar

32 Robert of Torigni, Chronique , 1:li–lii. See also Geary, P. J., Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1994), 249.Google Scholar

33 Robert of Torigni, Chronique , 1:l.Google Scholar

34 Robert's, Chronica begins on fol. 180v with the rubric “Incipiunt chronica Roberti” (note the plural). Fols. 169r–180v contain additional materials that Robert inserted between Sigebert's work and his continuation, including extracts from Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum. Google Scholar

35 Robert of Torigni, Chronique , 1:1.Google Scholar

36 The general impression here is that of a gradual correction system, within which corrections were included in subsequent stages, perhaps immediately following the completion of individual passages of text. It appears, therefore, that each corrector was assigned only a limited amount of text, which often seems to correspond to the changes of hand throughout the Chronica's main text. See, for example, fols. 206v-208r, fols. 211v–215r, fols. 215r–216r, and fols. 222v–225v.Google Scholar

37 Further examples include Avranches 159, fols. 210r and 216v.Google Scholar

38 Before the correction, the term in the book list was evangeliarum[sic] (an infrequent form) rather than the more common genitive plural, evangeliorum. Google Scholar

39 On Philip's book collection and his connection to Le Bec, see Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens” (n. 7 above), 322–24.Google Scholar

40 “Philipus, episcopus Baiocensis, mense Februario, moritur, qui fuit vir prudens et astutus in aumentandis et revocandis rebus illius ecclesiae, et multum ibi profecit, sed sapientia huius mundi stulticia est apud Deum. Hic se dederat monasterio Beccensi ad monachatum, sed non est in homine via eius. Praeventus enim fuit morte, nec quod proposuerat impere potuit; librorum tamen septies viginti volumina illis iam dederat.” (Robert, of Torigni, , Chronique , 1:344–45.) The translation follows those provided by Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles” (n. 3 above), 142; and William of Newburgh and Robert of Torigni, The History of William of Newburgh: The Chronicles of Robert de Monte , trans. Stevenson, J., The Church Historians of England 4.2 (London, 1856), 759.Google Scholar

41 This note forms the last line on the bottom of Avranches 159, fol. 1v. Also see Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens,” 323. The use of habuerunt rather than habuimus also suggests that the book list was not written at Le Bec but somewhere else, presumably at Mont-Saint-Michel.Google Scholar

42 Ibid.Google Scholar

43 The second book list on Avranches 159, fols. 2r–3r, appears to have been written down together with or soon after the list of books bequeathed by Philip of Harcourt (fol. 1v), which also puts it in the mid-1160s.Google Scholar

44 Avranches 159, fol. 216v. There is, unfortunately, no certainty as to when precisely these entries were written down (except, of course, for the fact that they must have been executed before Robert's death in 1186).Google Scholar

45 In theory, it is of course possible that some of these corrections might be of a later date, such as, for example, the year 1169, when Robert prepared the fourth redaction of his Chronica according to Delisle; cf. Robert of Torigni, , Chronique , 2:xiii.Google Scholar

46 For a description of the version of the Gesta Normannorum ducum that survives in this manuscript, see William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta (n. 1 above), 1:cix.Google Scholar

47 Ibid.Google Scholar

48 The most recent reassessment of Leiden BPL 20 and its date is provided by Tahkokallio, Jaakko in his PhD thesis, “Monks, Clerks, and King Arthur: Reading Geoffrey of Monmouth in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries” (PhD diss., University of Helsinki, 2013), 171–72.Google Scholar

49 On the use of wax tablets for drafting historical works such as Robert's, see Rouse, R. and Rouse, M., “The Vocabulary of Wax Tablets,” Vocabulaire du livre et de l'écriture au Moyen Âge, Etudes sur le vocabulaire du Moyen Age 2 (Turnhout, 1989), 220–30; and iidem, “Wax Tablets,” Language and Communication 9 (1989): 175–91, repr. and rev. in Harvard Library Bulletin, n.s. 1 (1990): 12–19.Google Scholar

50 William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 1:cx. Also see Dumville, D., “An Early Text of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and the Circulation of Some Latin Histories in Twelfth-Century Normandy,” Arthurian Literature 4 (1984): 1–36, at 3.Google Scholar

51 Also cf. the corresponding entries provided in van Houts's critical apparatus in William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 1:14, 28; and ibid., 2:126, 265, 268–69, 277, 279, and 282. Further examples of this hand (which, however, cannot be discussed in detail here) include Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2r, 3r, 3v, 6v, 11v, 12v, 13v, 14r, 15r, 17v, 18r, 19r, 22r, and 29r.Google Scholar

52 Cf. the notes in William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 2:57 and 164.Google Scholar

53 These include fol. 1v (“[Experimentis] partim [certissimo]”) and fol. 44r (“[Blesensis] habitum [sanctimonialis]”). On Paris Lat. 5997A, see William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta (n. 1 above), 1:cxi, who assumes an origin at Fécamp. Lair, J. and Delisle, L. (“Matériaux pour l'édition de Guillaume de Jumièges,” Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes 71 [1910]: 481–526, at 493) even suggest that Paris Lat. 5997A might have been copied directly from Leiden BPL 20. If this was indeed the case, then the occurrence of Robert's hand in Paris Lat. 5997A would serve to suggest that he himself oversaw the publication of his redaction of the Gesta Normannorum ducum to such an extent as to personally ensure the textual integrity of further copies. Also cf. Hermans, J. and van Houts, E. M. C., “The History of a Membrum Disiectum of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum, now Vatican, Reg. Lat. 733,” Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome 44 (1982): 79–94.Google Scholar

54 William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 1:cix.Google Scholar

55 Avranches 159, fols. 2v–3r. This book is listed as item no. 120 in Omont, , Catalogue (n. 22 above), 392, and no. 117 in Becker, Catalogi (n. 22 above), 264.Google Scholar

56 It is rather unlikely that Leiden BPL 20 or parts of it came to Le Bec as part of Philip's bequest in 1163. Rather, it seems that the date of the bishop's posthumous donation simply coincides with the binding together of the Gesta Normannorum ducum, the Historia regum Britanniae, and various other texts that the monks of Le Bec had already owned. I am very grateful to Elisabeth van Houts for sharing with me her detailed knowledge of these texts and manuscripts. Also see Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens” (n. 7 above), 340; and Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles” (n. 3 above), 140.Google Scholar

57 This is also suggested by the fact that in Leiden BPL 20, fol. 1v, the word ab[b] reviatio (line 9) was corrected by use of an interlinear gloss (inserting the missing “b”), whereas in Avranches 159, fol. 3r, the word already appears in its correct(ed) form as abbreviatio (line 4).Google Scholar

58 Bisson believes Leiden BPL 20 to show evidence of Robert's hand as a young monk-reader writing in or around ca. 1139. This seems unlikely, however, given that Robert wrote his comments into Leiden BPL 20 after the manuscript was bound together in its present form in ca. 1163/64.Google Scholar

59 Such an explanation would support van Houts's view, according to which Leiden BPL 20 remained at Le Bec until its seventeenth-century acquisition; see William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta (n. 1 above), 1:cix–cx.Google Scholar

60 After all, Robert's duties as abbot and the Benedictine norm of stabilitas loci presumably would have required him to be present at Mont-Saint-Michel most of the time during these years.Google Scholar

61 William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 1:cix.Google Scholar

62 Robert of Torigni, Chronique (n. 1 above), 1:lv–lxi. Also see Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles,” 137–40; and Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People , ed. Greenway, D. E., Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford, 1996), cxxxiii.Google Scholar

63 The other continental copy of an equally early date is Cambridge, University Library MS Gg.ii.21. See Henry of Huntingdon, Historia , cxxxii; and Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens,” 326.Google Scholar

64 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles,” 140. Also see Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens,” 338.Google Scholar

65 Robert of Torigni, Chronique , 1:344–45.Google Scholar

66 A similar suggestion was made by Nortier, ( Bibliothèques [n. 12 above], 41), “Une autre prevue que les listes d'Avranches n'ont pas été copies à l'usage des religieux du Bec reside dans l'emploi de la 3^e personne: ‘… sed nondum habuerunt’ (in fine).” Nortier further assumes that the book lists in Avranches 159, fols. 1v–3r were copied at Mont-Saint-Michel based on an exemplar made previously at Le Bec, which, however, does not survive.Google Scholar

67 Pohl, , “Robert of Torigni” (n. 5 above).Google Scholar

68 Huntingdon, , Historia , lxxv.Google Scholar

69 Ibid., lxviii–lxix.Google Scholar

70 Ibid., cxxiii and cxxxii.Google Scholar

71 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles” (n. 3 above), 127.Google Scholar

72 Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens” (n. 7 above), 338. Also cf. Wright, N., “The Place of Henry of Huntingdon's Epistola ad Warinum in the Text-History of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britannie: A Preliminary Investigation,” in France and the British Isles in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Essays in Memory of Ruth Morgan , ed. Jondorf, G. and Dumville, D. N. (Woodbridge, UK, 1991), 71–114, at 92–93.Google Scholar

73 On Paris Lat. 6042 and the Historia Anglorum , see Rouse, and Rouse, , “Potens,” 326.Google Scholar

74 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles,” 122.Google Scholar

75 Also cf. the critical apparatus in Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum (n. 62 above), 187, 336, 549, 552, and 566–67.Google Scholar

76 Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 42r and 71r; Leiden BPL 20, fol. 19r.Google Scholar

77 Leiden BPL 20, fol. 6v. Also cf. William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta (n. 1 above), 2:57.Google Scholar

78 Avranches 159, fol. 172v.Google Scholar

79 Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2r and 14v.Google Scholar

80 Leiden BPL 20, fol. 2r; Avranches 159, fol. 211v.Google Scholar

81 Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2v and 4r.Google Scholar

82 Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 49v and 52r.Google Scholar

83 Leiden BPL 20, fol. 18r; Paris Lat. 6042, fol. 97v.Google Scholar

84 Leiden BPL 20, fols. 29v and 30r.Google Scholar

85 Paris Lat. 6042, fol. 97r.Google Scholar

86 Leiden BPL 20, fol. 30v. Also see William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta , 2:279.Google Scholar

87 van Houts, E. M. C., “Robert of Torigni as Genealogist,” in Studies in Medieval History: Presented to R. Allen Brown , ed. Harper-Bill, C., Holdsworth, C. J., and Nelson, J. L. (Woodbridge, UK, 1989), 215–34, at 215.Google Scholar

88 Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum (n. 62 above), cxxii–cxxiii.Google Scholar

89 Stirnemann, , “Bibliophiles” (n. 3 above), 137.Google Scholar

90 Ibid.Google Scholar

91 Several years after his departure, Robert received a letter from Le Bec's then abbot in which he was asked to send a copy of the Chonica's continuation, so the old version at Le Bec could be updated beyond the year 1154; see Nortier, , Bibliothèques (n. 12 above), 40.Google Scholar

92 Gullick, M., “The Hand of Symeon of Durham: Further Observations on the Durham Martyrology Scribe,” in Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North , ed. Rollason, D. (Stamford, UK, 1998), 14–31; and Gullick, M., “The Scribes of the Durham Cantor's Book (Durham, Dean and Chapter Library, MS B.IV.24) and the Durham Martyrology Scribe,” in Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1193 , ed. Rollason, D., Harvey, M., and Prestwich, M. (Woodbridge, UK, 1994), 93–110.Google Scholar

93 Scholarly consensus has it that the more substantial annalistic entries for the years 1135–73 in Avranches 211, fol. 76r were composed by a single hand, supposedly that of Robert; see, for example, Robert of Torigni, Chronique (n. 1 above), 2:207: “Les notes des années 1135–1173 ont été tracées par une même main, peut-être par la main de Robert de Torigni.” The actual paleographical evidence, however, is not conclusive enough to support such a straightforward identification. In fact, it is entirely possible that we are actually dealing with not just one but several hands, not all of which match that of Robert perfectly. It is true that some of the handwriting on fol. 76r is strikingly reminiscent of Robert's, particularly some of the right-hand glosses, including line 7 (“Obiit Johannes imperator Constantinopolis et succedit [Em]manuel filius eius”), the latter half of line 8 (“Obiit Celestinus papa et succedit Lucius”), line 9 (“Civitas Rotomagi reddita est comiti Andegavensi Gaufrido”), and the end of line 14 and line 15 (“quam duxit Henricus dux Normannorum”), as well as the cropped entry at the very top of the folio (“Obiit Henricus rex Anglorum et dux Normannorum”). These entries were written in a much lighter ink than the others, and thus might well belong to a different scribe (possibly even Robert himself). At least some level of similarity with Robert's hand can also be observed with regard to individual letter forms, for example, “bb” in line 3 (“The[o] baldus abbas”), line 15 (“Bernardus abbas”), and line 16 (“Gaufredus abbas”), but not, however, line 23 (“Petrus Cluniacesis abbas”), where the ascenders show conspicuous split ends, which do not feature in any of the examples of Robert's handwriting in Avranches 211 or elsewhere. Similar split ends occur on letters such as “1” in line 2 (“Ludovicus”), line 6 (“Rex Anglorum”), line 10 (“lapidibus”), and line 11 (“ecclesiis”), as well as “b” in line 4 (“The[o]baldus”) and line 10 (“lapidibus”), and these are similarly uncharacteristic of Robert's hand. All of this taken together means that it is problematic to identify the hand (or rather hands) on Avranches 211, fol. 76r as Robert's; while there are some similarities, there are also significant disparities that serve to provide sufficient room for doubt.Google Scholar

94 I am thankful to Thomas Bisson for drawing my attention to this manuscript. Bisson believes that the second of the two lists was written by Robert in order to emend the clumsy penmanship of one of his predecessors working under Abbot Bernard (1131–49). I consider the exact opposite to be the case, with somebody else replacing Robert's previous attempt of drawing up a passional.Google Scholar

95 Robert's comments include fol. 9r (“[interpretatur] τν περιπεδίνων [theodocion] τν ἀλσν [amena]”), fol. 9v (“[filius masech] vernaculae meae”), fol. 18r (“ethimologia”), fol. 18v (“ethimologiam”), fol. 19v (“ethimologiam”), fol. 22r (“[si chabratha] ippodromus est ephrata [ippodromes]”), fol. 25v (“sonare”; “et”), fol. 26r (“[septuag]ens[imus]”), fol. 26v (“[Ephraim et Manasse] sicut Ruben et Simeon erunt mihi illud significat [sicut]”), fol. 28r (“desider[avit]”), fol. 30r (“accepit”), and fol. 73v (“et paulo post cofirmabit multis pactum ebdomada una”).Google Scholar

96 For example, fol. 1v (“[Galliarum provintiae numero xviii. Viennensis] in qua est vienna [Narbonensis prima] in qua est narbona [Narbonensis secunda] in qua est aquis [Aquitunia(sic!) prima] in qua est biturica [Aquitunia(sic!) secunda] in qua est burdegala [Novempopulana] in qua est talosa(sic!) [Alpes maritimae] in qua est ebridunum [Belgica prima in qua est treveris. Belgica secunda] in qua est (erased) [in qua est transitus] remus [ad britanniam. Germania prima] in qua est moguntia [super renum. Germania secunda] in qua est colonia [ut super. Lugdunensis prima] in qua est lugdunum [super rodanum. Lugdunensis secunda] in qua est rothomagum [super oceanum. Lugdunensis tercia] in qua est turonis et quarta in qua est vesontium [Senonis maxima alpes] in qua est taretara [gratae]”), fol. 2r (“[En adsunt nomina civitatum h[-] regionum] galliae”; “[civitas arelatensium] id est metropolis”), and the addition of papal names and ordinate numbers on fol. 165r (“ ii innocentius; ii celestinus; ii Lucius; iii eugenius; iiii anastasius; iii adrianus; iiii alexander”) and fol. 165v (“[Nullus episcopus] nisi [in papa ordinari]”). The ordinal numbers are definitely written by the same hand that inserted the names of the corresponding popes.Google Scholar

97 Written in Robert's hand are the comments on fol. 49v (“[Tusculanarum] disputationum [liber]”), fol. 96v (“quod illa li”), and fol. 117v (“fortunam”).Google Scholar

98 These are Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 35; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 88; Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 160, fol. 105r (“inde”), fol. 108v (“[rabie effari] erati [per diversas]”), fol. 113r (“[obiectus] erat [publicis]”; this occurrence of the word “erat” is remarkably similar — if not identical — to those in Avranches 159 [fol. 206v] and Leiden BPL 20 [fol. 31v]), and fol. 116v (“fecit”); Avranches 66, fol. 1r (“Hi versus scripta sunt in sepulchro dominico”; “versus primatis”), fol. 37r (“[et ni]chil [his anterius]”; the same hand also wrote a comment in the page margins, now rendered illegible do to cropping and what looks like erasure), fol. 39v (“[quae graeci aca-] asomata [-ta(sic!) id est incorporea]”; “[supra illam, quae arranc(sic!)] aplanes [dicitur]”), and fol. 40r (also rendered illegible by page cropping and erasure). Note that in Avranches 66, fols. 35, 37, 38, and 40 are smaller in format than the rest of the manuscript, which may suggest that these pages were inserted later, perhaps to correct and replace the previous text. Unfortunately, the manuscript does not survive in its original binding. Cf. Delisle, L., “Notes sur quelques manuscrits de la bibliothèque de Tours,” Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes 29 (1868): 596–611, at 7–8.Google Scholar

99 On this manuscript, also see Omont, , Catalogue (n. 22 above), 10:116.Google Scholar

100 With the arguable exception of the annalistic entries in Avranches 211, fol. 76r, which I demonstrated above as representing a problematic case, Avranches 213 is the only manuscript to exhibit specimens of Robert's handwriting that exceed the length of individual words.Google Scholar

101 This can be observed, for example, with regard to some of the manuscripts written and annotated by Symeon of Durham; cf. Gullick, , “Hand of Symeon,” 23: “It is the fundamental aspects of Symeon's hand which remained more or less constant. The appearance and the quality of the execution of his hand varied according to time, context and place, and this was probably true of many other medieval scribes too.” Google Scholar

102 Examples include Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 239, fols. 20v, 24v, 33v, 42v, 66r, 101r, 111r, 146r; Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2r, 2v, 4r, 12v, 20v, 29r, 29v, 31v, 34v, 40v; Avranches 159, fols, 1v, 206v, 210r, 216v; Avranches 211, fol. 75v; Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 28r, 34r, 71r, 118v. Also cf. Avranches 88, fols. 18r, 20r, 62v.Google Scholar

103 See Avranches 239, fols. 22v, 30v, 33v, 45v, 46r, 56v, 59r, 77r, 123r; Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2v, 6v, 17v, 18r, 29r, 30r, 30v, 33r, 65r; Avranches 159, fols, 1v, 204v, 209v, 210r; Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 17v, 103v.Google Scholar

104 See, for example, Avranches 239, fols. 30v, 46r, 69v, 111r; Leiden BPL 20, fols. 11v, 30v, 34v; Avranches 159, fols. 201r, 206r; Avranches 211, fol. 75v; Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 17r, 28r, 52r. Also cf. Avranches 66, fol. 16v.Google Scholar

105 See Avranches 239, fols. 22v, 32v, 51v, 95v, 111r; Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2v, 11v, 13v, 25r, 30v.Google Scholar

106 Also see Avranches 239, fols. 22v, 33v, 46r, 76r, 95v, 146r; Leiden BPL 20, fols. 2v, 4r, 13v, 14v, 30v; Paris Lat. 6042, fols. 71r, 118v. Also cf. Avranches 68, flyleaf; Avranches 88, fols. 18r, 20r.Google Scholar

107 Strikingly similar cases of “de” ligatures also occur in Avranches 68, flyleaf; Avranches 88, fol. 18r; Avranches 35, fol. 75v; Avranches 146, fol. 1v; and Avranches 241, fol. 66v.Google Scholar

108 I use the term “fully literate” in the sense of Bäuml, F. H., “Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy,” Speculum 55 (1980): 237–65. For further discussions on medieval concepts of literacy/illiteracy, see Stock, B., The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Princeton, 1983); Thomson, R. M. and Morgan, N. J., “Language and Literacy,” in Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 2 (n. 7 above), 22–38; Parkes, M. B., “The Literacy of the Laity,” in Scribes, Scripts and Readers: Studies in the Communication, Presentation and Dissemination of Medieval Texts (London, 1991), 275–98; and the various contributions to Mostert, M., ed., New Approaches to Medieval Communication, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, vol. 1 (Turnhout, 1999).Google Scholar

109 It might be possible, therefore, to see in Robert what could be called an “armarius” or “cantor” role, even though we do not know for certain whether he ever fulfilled either of the two offices. With regard to the period of his abbacy at Mont-Saint-Michel — and arguably also during his five-year priorate at Le Bec — this, however, does not seem a likely scenario, as Robert probably would not have held both offices at the same time. During these periods, both institutions probably employed precentores or amarii in their own right. On the topic of cantors (and “cantor-historians”), see Fassler, M., “The Office of the Cantor in Early Western Monastic Rules and Customaries: A Preliminary Investigation,” Early Music History: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Music 5 (1985): 29–51.Google Scholar

110 William, of Jumièges, et al., Gesta (n. 1 above), 1:lxxviii.Google Scholar ∗ denotes a manuscript including samples of handwriting that are remarkably similar to that of Robert as it occurs in nos. 1–9, but cannot, at present, be positively identified as his.Google Scholar

111 Figures 1–4, 10–12 reproduced by permission from Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale.Google Scholar

112 Figures 5–7 reproduced by permission from Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek.Google Scholar

113 Figures 8–9 reproduced by permission from the Bibliothèque nationale de France.Google Scholar