By “siddur” we ordinarily mean a Jewish prayer book, but this volume is not a normal prayer book. It is, rather, a rich compendium of liturgical poetry for Shabbat and the holidays, written in early Ashkenaz. Many of these poems are not included in later prayer books, so what is preserved in this volume offers crucial documentation of otherwise lost Jewish creativity. Also notable in this volume are its numerous miniature illustrations. 

 The striking image on the page before you, one of a series of illustrations of the Ten Commandments, is an illustration of Shabbat observance. At the left, a woman lights the traditional Sabbath lamp. At the table we see a man and a woman drinking kiddush wine from huge goblets; the man is wearing a Jew’s hat, the characteristic hat that Jews were often represented as wearing in medieval Europe, and the woman has her head covered. On the table, still half-covered, are two loaves of bread. Though set in a very different world from our own, the continuities between medieval and contemporary Shabbat practices are readily evident.