Case #5 · Hard
The Alpine Scriptum
San Girolamo Abbey, Pennine Alps · November 12, 1894
A bitter blizzard cuts off the mountain abbey. Both Brother Bernardo and the visiting guest Count Moretti had been granted permission to study and treat ancient codices in the library archive that evening. At ten o'clock, the novice carrying warm broth finds the archivist, Brother Severino, dead on the flagstones, his skull fractured by a heavy iron book-press screw.
The victim
Brother Severino
62, keeper of the abbey's ancient manuscripts for three decades. Scrupulous, uncompromising, and known for his obsessive cataloguing of the monastery's priceless Latin codices.
- Scene of the crime
- Library Archive
- Estimated time of death
- between 21:15 and 21:45
The suspects
Brother Bernardo
Assistant archivist and copyist
28, a gifted calligrapher and the victim's immediate pupil. Skilled in folio restoration, bookbinding, and pigment preparation, he spent late hours working on damaged texts under Severino's strict supervision.
“I left Brother Severino at nine in the archive to let him catalogue alone. I sat at my desk in the scriptorium transcribing patristic commentaries until after quarter past ten, without stepping outside once.”
Count Lorenzo Moretti
Visiting Florentine collector and restorer
46, an aristocratic bibliophile and trained manuscript restorer stranded at the abbey by snows. Highly skilled in recovering erased palimpsests using chemical reagents and pumice, and determined to acquire the Carolingian Gospel.
“The old monk refused my generous offer again before Vespers. Disappointed, I remained in the guest wing examining my parchment folios and reading Cicero by the stove from half past eight until your monks raised the alarm.”
Father Matteo
Prior of the abbey
54, responsible for the abbey's dire finances and crumbling roofs. Practical and austere, he has clashed with Brother Severino over selling monastery relics to pay debts.
“I was in my cell balancing the monastery ledgers and writing urgent petitions to the Bishop of Aosta between nine and ten. I heard neither footstep nor dispute in the cloister.”
Brother Anselmo
Apothecary and infirmarian
60, quiet and observant, tending the herbs, medicinal distillations, and binder oils. Suffering from chronic insomnia, he frequently walks the quiet stone passages at odd night hours.
“I was brewing willow-bark decoctions in the infirmary for the Prior's rheumatism all evening. I barely left my hearth except to fetch fresh snow for distillation.”