This small folding altar card contains most of the essentials of the Roman Catholic Mass. It has hand-colored engravings of the story of the life of Jesus Christ, including the Nativity, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. There are images of Moses and Saint Nicholas. And, in letterpress, are the essential texts for the service, including the Credo, the Gloria, as well as the words the priest speaks when giving Holy Communion. Small, portable altars like this served various puposes in the seventeenth century. Priests might use them while traveling, when they were unable to attend a more formal mass in a church. Altarpieces like this could also be used for personal devotion at home. But these cards most often served priests who were conducting the mass in a church; they were kept on the main altar, just in case the priest's memory needed a quick nudge.

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