Robert of Torigni

[10] Robert developed a reputation as being a pious monk, an accomplished diplomat, a skilled organiser[11] and a great lover and collector of books.

[12] Under Robert de Torigni Mont Saint-Michel became a great centre of learning, with sixty monks producing copious manuscripts and a library collection so vast it was called the Cité des Livres ('City of Books').

[11] Robert's principal interest was not so much in man's path to salvation, or in the moral lessons of history; it was in what he called "chronography" (organizing historical events in chronological order).

"[15] The 19th-century English archivist Joseph Stevenson said Torigni was not always correct in his chronology and made errors even in matters in Normandy of which he should have known better, yet he was always honest and truthful and his mistakes did not greatly affect the overall value of his chronicle.

[15] Robert, in turn, introduced Henry to a new work by Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Historia Regum Britanniae, a copy of which first reached Bec about 1138.