If the Council approves a 2 Co expenditure, and she is alive and well at the end of 1137 (adventures + lab experimenting!), Gloriana has Tricking the Reaper [CrCo 25, ritual, +80] Mastery 1 (Stalwart Casting), she cannot botch this roll. She will use 1 Long-term Fatigue to save 1 Co pawn.
I vote in favor! Anna says. Anna also votes to approve any expenditures for any health crisis.
Andros is grave, but with a twinkle in his eye "Welcome then, Arduino ex Verditius, student of Oliverius. Our Covenant suffered a heavy loss recently, may your skills help us heal from it!"
Danaë "I will add you to the Mercere rolls, Arduino, welcome. What will be your area of interest, if I may ask. Perhaps I may commission something from you, sodales." She is super serious, and perhaps a little less charming than usual, as Arduino is Blatantly Gifted, and she hasn't fully gotten used to it.
Gloriana speaks genially: "Hail, Arduino! I have a feeling you will fit right in! Working to make the Praesidium stronger in new ways is a laudable goal, may you never falter."
All 3 are in favor of spending vis to keep the expert vintner alive and brewing.
Oliverius approves of saving the vintner, but after some muttering and numbers on his tablet, will ask questions about long-term veracity of this plan. "We are magi, sodales. We have to think of the future in much, much longer terms than most of our covenfolk. I support the aid and prosperity of the covenfolk who support us and help us thrive. When our covenfolk, prospering under our care, age towards a distant future, how many of these healing rituals can we afford a year? I want to be prepared well in advance of reaching that dangerous number."
"Umm... well with how little vis this takes thanks to Gloriana and how much vis were getting, especially if we stop stockpiling vis in the Mercere House probably quite a few? Resources are limited and all, but if we have resources to spare shouldn't we use them to help those who have served so loyally and well? I suppose we should try to make sure that the Covenfolk know we aren't working miracles and we won't always be able to save people."
Oliverius looks thoughtfully at Anna, and then nods. "It looks like it will never be a real problem.. but I do not want to find ourselves in a situation for the first time someone cannot be saved."
Unlike Oliverius, Aurthor continue to think that we have too many resources that should be exploited for the good of the covenant. "We have a huge credit to the Redcaps in the form of vis for account (almost 3700!) that the House Mercere itself has every interest in extinguishing in some way. We really should invest a tiny portion of this credit for lab texts on spells, a field in which our library is strongly lacking."
Aurthor then proceeds to propose the following resolution:
RESOLUTION FOR AN ORDER OF LAB TEXTS OF COMMON SPELLS -> PASSED
1200 magnitudo of spells with an expense of 100 vis for account (the magi indicate which spells they want most and Aurthor eventually fill the rest of the order?).
YES: Aurthor, Anna, Oliverius, Arduino, Danaë, Andros, Gloriana
NO:
ABSTAIN:
OCC: I like to put proposals to the council in this format because it seems to me that otherwise they often get lost, without knowing exactly if they were rejected or accepted. Let me know if the other players find it annoying and prefer a less direct approach. 
Anna votes yes, but doesn't particularly care what lab texts are bought.
Oliverius would vote yes. Our lab text selection is SORELY lacking in most Forms except for Corpus.
please keep in mind how this will realistically work- if you went to a book store and simply asked for 25 books on cooking, for example, they would look at you funny rather than say "Oh sure, these are the 25 books you should have."
By comparison books are more rare in the setting, so "books on goldsmithing" is a much narrower field than "levels of lab texts for common spells" It might be better to authorize the expense and decide who will pick the lab texts, or to have a list before the vote instead of simply authorizing the purchase of unspecified lab texts for spells.
The phrase highlited is what I'm trying to do, Aurthor will pick the lab texts taking into account any preferences of the other magi (currently only the magi controlled by Ignes.Festivus has not yet expressed their preferences).
At the end to Mercere House will be presented a detailed list of lab texts, not a generic order of 1200 magnitudo of spells (that if I understand correctly it's what you would not like).
Another possibility, since we have seven or so magi, is to have each magi select 150 levels of spells they want, and then fill out the remainder with spells that aid the covenant as a whole.
Andros: Yes, yes, you are quite right, Oliverius. We are all here for only a time, and then we are off to our reward. We must meditate on this.
Gloriana says placidly: Oh, I do not propose we do this forever! I am finite, as are our resources! But the Mercurian magic of our forebears is with us, and it serves us well! The goodwill generated is palpable. For those of us with a too powerful Gift, this could be the difference between eating our meals with some peace of mind, or never venturing outside a fortified laboratory. I will always endeavor to fulfill my role to keep the Praesidium strong!
Danaë: We should certainly do this for our most heroic grogs! Many are serving well into their old age, and their descendants are tied to our Covenant with strong bonds. And I dare pronounce the distilling of this most fine Siderno Red heroic! And we also have some fine physicians, no? It will all work out in the end.
YES: Danaë (mainly cause it's business for the Mercere House), Andros, Gloriana
Andros once again returns to the Council, now that the unpleasant business of the theft is behind, and again proposes as he did before.
Was Oliverius able to point Andros to a Verditius with the Items of Quality Mystery?
Are the items he commissioned, Excellent suit of Chain mail for himself, an Excellent Greatsword, and a Superior leather sash with pouches, ready?
He will assume his Excellent cloak is not ready, as there was the forced Quest for Adriana, and there might be some animus there.
Andros asks the Council once again to buy the Clam Shell, Topaz, Mercury of Virtue, Basalt of Virtue, Granite of Virtue for 15 pawns of Ignem vis, of which the Praesidium has low stores.
Gloriana declares ""Evandrus with the clay of life" AQ:25 sculpture in pottery as the narrow winner in the Evandrus's Tribute sweepstakes. Who created it, silveroak, Zola Potter?
She has allocated Winter 1138 to create a LR for the artist, at her expense, if he/she wishes to undergo this procedure. She will also have the artwork installed into her Lab as a ceremonial prop.
Lucio informs you that Zola is quite grateful, but has also asked if there is any way that a longevity ritual could be earned for her husband Aroldo as well.
*side note from the GM- Aroldo is the Itallian form of Harry. Yes, since the beginning of the game you have had Harry Potter as a covenant grog.
The superior sash is ready. Craftsmen to make the armor and sword have been located, but they are not of the covenant and will have to take personal measurements to construct the items, plus their services are in high demand with a war raging. If you can take a season to visit them for measurements then they can begin work on those items. Adriana hopes to make amends for her earlier transgressions and has offered to make a cloak of wonderous quality, but would need to get your measurements as well, an would also want to be careful that she does not do anything that will interfere with what plans you might have for the cloak.
News of 1137:
The tribunal decided not to take a stance regarding the papal election excepting 2 points- 1) that it would not forbid magi from following their conscience in support of either canidate and 2) encouraging such magi to resolve their differences in certamen before offering direct support to minimize the Order's exposure. These rules have been quite successful in driving multiple contests of certamen where rivals demanded each other to withdraw support, and the few remaining magi looking to get involved were challenged by Tremere certamen specialists to not withdraw or reduce their support with other considerations being laid against those challenges.
In terms of the war itself it began favoring Innocent's forces as Lothair and Innocent II took Bari and invested Ranaulf as Duke of Apulia. Roger II then took a series of cities and claimed Naples, but when he turned to dislodge Ranaulf in October he was defeated and forced to retreat.
It has come to Lucio's attention that he isn't quite certain what it is Mercurio actually does arround the covenant- he did apprentice for a while as a scribe, but the covenant currently has more scribes than it needs. He believes that Mercurio might be best suited to the life of a merchant, and while it is certainly too late to apprentice him as such the covenant could certainly afford the investment to set him up as perhaps a merchant adventurer, if the council agrees this is a good plan. Also the library staff has requested that he make more straightforward requests in his choice of books...
Mercurio's 'work' seasons have been spent helping Gloriana around the lab, though in truth I believe there was never an 'official' transfer of duties. I'm guessing Mercurio asked Gloriana to help her in the lab instead of during scribal duties, Gloriana assumed Lucio was informed by Mercurio, and Mercurio never bothered to deal with the details. If the covenant wants to send Mercurio to act as a merchant, he would be more than happy to do so (the possibilities are amazing!). If Gloriana still wants a full-time lab assistant in him, he's willing to do that as well (He likes being in the lab with the attractive maga and her daughter). His Faerie Blood calls to the concept of a merchant adventurer, he's excited for the prospect, but being raised in the covenant, he deeply understands how important it is to work with the will of the council.
Regarding the library book requests - that was Mercurio trying to make sure he doesn't ask for books that magi or higher-stationed covenfolk wanted. In the future, he promises to just ask for the book he wants and be okay getting shot down if a magus wants it instead.
Oliverius has a Verditius Cult Lore 3 and Order of Hermes 1(personalities), can he help Andros find someone who can make Items of Quality for him? Or will this require more work than a few letters?