At the saint’s feet kneels a young monk with his hands veiled in a sign of respect: this is Leone Marsicano, Giovanni’s nephew. Not only did he supervise the work, but he also became librarian and head of the scriptorium of Montecassino at Desiderius’ behest. With him, the scriptorium’s activity would experience its period of greatest splendour.
The scene and text of Cod. 99 are an important and rare testimony to the production of medieval manuscripts, because they depict all the actors and distinguish the various roles hierarchically. The recipient, St. Benedict, who receives the codex, is present; the patron, Desiderius, who commissions its execution; the donor, Giovanni, who pays for the work; the superintendent of the scriptorium, Leone, who oversees the creation of the book and is depicted smaller in size and in a humble attitude. The actual executor, i.e. the person who wrote the book, is only mentioned in passing.
Unfortunately, neither in the signature nor in the image do we find any trace of the illuminators who worked on the pages of the codex. We have no information about the adorners who created the exuberant initials, nor about the authors of the three drawings depicting the biblical episodes of the Annunciation, Joseph’s Dream, the Adoration of the Magi and the Ascension. For some unknown reason, these illuminators interrupted their work, leaving the entire upper part of the Ascension incomplete, the pages that were supposed to depict the Nativity, the Resurrection and Pentecost blank, and only small reference numbers or initials indicating colours [https://www.memo.pyle.it/strumenti/miniature-da-colorare/] that were never applied to the parchment.
