Écrire l’histoire des abbés du Mont Saint-Michel2. Robert de Torigni, ses outils, ses sources et sa méthode de travail

Abstract

Mastering time was one of the major issues for chroniclers and historians of the Middle Ages. This investigation into the method adopted by Robert of Torigni to compose his chronicle of the abbots of Mont Saint-Michel highlights the three preliminary stages essential to its writing: updating the catalog of abbots, interpolation of pre-existing annals and building new records on the sidelines of “comput” tables (Easter annals). It also reveals that the Easter Annals of Le Bec and especially three Annals of Mont Saint-Michel – composed shortly after 1035, in 1116 and in 1154 – served as sources for structuring the work. The chronicle of the abbots of Mont Saint-Michel is therefore based on several older editorial layers, and has in turn served medieval and modern historians to shape the history of this prestigious monastery. Just as the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel is made up of several layers of successive buildings and forms today an accumulation of architectural layers, its history, elaborated in several phases, rests on an accumulation of editorial layers.

Keywords

• annals
• chronicle
• Mont Saint-Michel
• abbots
• Robert of Torigni
• Christian era