The library of Marmoutier was founded by St. Martin himself with the abbey: so at least the phrase is understood to mean, “except writing (or scripture) no art was exercised there.” Dom Gérou, librarian of Marmoutier, made a catalogue of the manuscripts in his charge, and Chalmel’s copy of that catalogue is now in the library of Tours. There were, in 1754, 360 manuscripts, and there are now 263 of them in the library. Many of these are of value. Marmoutier was always rich in Latin manuscripts. In 1716 a great collection made by the Lesdiguières family was bought at Toulouse; these were chiefly French, and thus it comes about that the library of Tours now possesses some of the very first rank of the most ancient monuments of French literature. Sulpicius Severus, who made a special visit to St. Martin at Tours, gives us an exact description of the site of this monastery, founded by Martin in or about 372, at a distance of two miles from the city, on its north-east side. He describes it as bounded on the north by a range of precipitous rock, and on the south by a portion of the stream of the river Loire, here divided. In those times it was only accessible by one narrow way. Martin’s own cell was of wood, but many of the eighty brethren excavated cells for themselves in the rock, the nature of which lends itself to such excavation. The range of cliff is honeycombed to this day for stables, wagon-sheds, &c.; indeed, excavations of this character are a feature of the district, observable from Poitiers to many miles on the Orleans side of Tours. This abbey, like that of St. Martin, gradually became secularized, and it, like St. Martin’s, was ruled by Count Vivian forty years after Alcuin’s death. The names of many of its abbats before Alcuin’s time are known, but it is only from the year 814 that a continuous series is recorded. A photograph of some remains of the abbey is given in Plate V.