To be clear he was a monk for a number of years in a Monastery in Switzerland, and he did tell the story (as I am sure many former monks tell the same when reflecting on their experience); however, many people in the thread are drawing similarities between themselves and the unknown scribes, thinking the scribe's work sounds similar to their own as a coder, or that the both put hidden messages in their work. Simply the biggest similarity is human nature, humor and complaining are good examples. In other words I did not see to many people making the point that they too know what it is like to be cold like some scribes mentioned.

Although you make a great point it would be great if one of these margin notes had a second note underneath saying, "its really not that cold in here" or "given a few hundred years the paper softened up quite nicely" a la HN.

Edit: Sorry it must not have come thru, I know this is not my Godfather's actual experience...what made it great is that it was told to me by a former monk in the first person