The Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500 was named for a group of devotional manuscripts by the same hand dating to the years surrounding 1500. This manuscript is named after Count Pertengo of Turin, who owned the book in the 18th century and who had it rebound with its armorial binding. The manuscript is lavished with 16 full-page miniatures surrounded by full borders (each facing a page with a matching full border and a six-line initial) and 25 smaller illuminations. Its intimate size testifies to its function as a private prayer book, providing its owner with a set of prayers to be recited at 8 particular times of the day — mirroring the 8 monastic hours chanted by monks in monasteries. Preceding the prayers is a calendar, which is illustrated with signs of the Zodiac and 12 occupations of the Month. With the inclusion of the calendar, the reader would know what occasion or which saint to pray to that day, and the saints included would have been tailored to the patron’s wishes.
