The word “Mahzor,” familiar to most Jews as the term used for the prayer book for the High Holidays, means “cycle.” It can therefore be used to describe a book containing any liturgical cycle. Sometimes the term was also used to describe a text created in codex = book form, as opposed to a traditional Jewish scroll.  

The Bamberg Mahzor, completed in Bamberg, Germany, in 1279, includes prayers for the entire year according to Ashkenazi custom. It is distinguished by its Ashkenazi script and the style of its decoration. 

The stylized gate punctuated by rondels containing “grotesque” creatures surrounds a liturgical poem for Purim, elaborating the story of Esther. The quality of the decoration is characteristic of 13th-century German lands.