As the administrative centre of the district, in 1791, Avranches was entrusted with a “literary legacy” of more than 14,000 volumes from the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel, which had been dispossessed of its property.

Among these volumes, some 200 manuscripts, some of them dating from the 9th century, have contributed to the renown of Avranches and the Scriptorial is often described as one of the most interesting collections of medieval manuscripts in France. They are survivors from Mont-Saint-Michel’s medieval library, the spiritual, intellectual and artistic memory of the Benedictine community.

The manuscripts contain much precious information: chronicles and important texts from Ancient times to the Middle Ages concerning Roman and canonic law, botany, music, astronomy, or even medicine, computus (calculation of liturgical time), sermons, the lives of Saints, anthology...

Liberal arts, sacred texts and profane sciences sit side-by-side, along with some original editions or copies, including Plato’s "Timaeus", fragments from the 9th century “Of the Orator” by Cicero, treatise by Seneque and Boethius...