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The Saint George Codex belonged to Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi and, traditionally until the nineteenth century, its miniatures were attributed to Giotto. The author of the miniatures was first christened the Master of the Saint George Codex at the beginning of the twentieth century. The text of the codex contains a portion of the sanctorale (March 25-June 9) and a history of St George, as well as hymns in his honour written by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi. The history of St George is based on Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend and is similarly anecdotal.
The codex is richly illustrated with eighteen historiated initials and one bas-de-page miniature. The decorative vocabulary and palette of the codex are Florentine, whereas the mise-en-scene and preciousness have been appropriately linked to contemporary French illumination. The lettering has been characterized as typifying Italian work in Avignon. The manuscripts that were illuminated exclusively by the Master of the St George Codex or his workshop all seem to have been produced in Avignon during Cardinal Stefaneschi's continuous residence from 1309 until his death at the age of eighty in 1341.
The manuscript contains four portraits of its patron, Cardinal Stefaneschi, who was a a scholar, champion of the Franciscans, and a grandnephew of Pope Nicholas III. Two show him in the act of writing. Folio 17r presents, enclosed within a letter E, a portrait of Cardinal Stefaneschi seated at his desk, apparently composing the life of St George that begins here.
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