This article is a general description of the conception and development of SAToRBase, an online database tool that contains some 3000 occurrences of topoi (recurring motifs) in French literature from about 1200 to 1800. SAToRBase has been developed expressly for the Société d'Analyse de la Topique Romanesque (SAToR), an international literary association. The purpose of this article is not to examine in detail each aspect of SAToRBase; that would be futile for an online tool of this kind which is in constant evolution. Rather, the purpose is to present more broadly the major characteristics of SAToRBase, including a brief description of typical procedures such as searching for occurrences of topoi and proposing new occurrences. The interface of SAToRBase is likely to change considerably over time, but the core concepts will no doubt remain stable.