The second half of the thirteenth century in Ashkenaz saw the appearance of illustrated festival prayer books. These Mhazorim often contain liturgical poems for the various festivals added to the regular prayers. They were primarily for the cantor's use in synagogue. 

One of the highlights from the collection of the National Library of Israel is a mid-fourteenth-century Mahzor with figurative penwork decoration, known as the Moskowitz Rhine Mahzor (no. 23). A full-page illustration is the opening panel containing the blessing 'Who opens up for us the Gates of Mercy', recited at the start of the introduction to the Shema on the morning of Yom Kippur. The captivating illumination reflects contemporary Gothic style. 

Another Mahzor, in the Braginsky Collection (no. 24), contains the liturgy for Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Hanukkah according to the French rite. A unique reading in the Mahzor is the polemical verse Shefokh hamatkha al ha-goyim (fol. 21r). This verse, generally associated with the Passover seder, appears here as a part of the Yom Kippur service. 

The piyyut Lekha Dodi, sung to welcome Shabbat, was composed in the sixteenth century by Solomon ha-Levi Alkabetz. The text of Tikkune Shabbat features acrostics that spell the names of the patriarchs and of Isaac Luria Ashkenazi (1534-1572), as well as the secret divine names. This manuscript from the National Library of Israel (no. 24) was made in 1715 as a small deluxe private prayer book, testifying to the popularity of these volumes among wealthy Viennese Jews.