The painting became part of the Varese civic collections in 1977, thanks to the bequest of the notary Giuseppe Bonazzola. In the canvas, recorded in the inventory with the purely descriptive title of Woman reading, it is in all probability to be recognized The Prayer Book, a work that appeared at the posthumous exhibition of Eleuterio Pagliano, in whose catalog it appeared as belonging to the collection of Mr. Henry Prior . Pagliano combines his artistic vocation with an enthusiastic and reckless patriotic commitment, manifested through the faithful militancy of Garibaldi. It is precisely these atmospheres that feed The Prayer Book, whose very stringy setting is reduced to the floor of a kneeler to leave the field full to the young and absorbed reader in fifteenth-century robes, whose colors recall those of the Italian flag.