Hedwig Codex

Hedwig Codex
Saint Hedwig of Silesia venerated by Duke Louis and his consort Agnes
Also known as	Vita beatae Hedwigis
Type	illuminated manuscript
Date	1353
Place of origin	Silesia
Language(s)	Latin
Illuminated by	Court workshop of Duke Louis I of Legnica
Patron	Louis I of Brzeg and Agnes of Głogów-Żagań
Material	Tempera colors, colored washes, and ink on parchment bound between wood boards covered with red-stained pigskin
Size	13 7/16 x 9 3/4 in.
Previously kept	Shrine of St Hedwig

The Hedwig Codex is a medieval illuminated manuscript of the life of Saint Hedwig of Silesia, spouse of the Silesian Piast duke Henry the Bearded. Based on her hagiography (Vita beatae Hedwigis), the illustrated codex was produced in 1353 at the court workshop of Hedwig's descendant, Duke Louis I of Legnica in Lubin. According to a letter by Bishop Preczlaw of Pogarell he dedicated it to the newly established collegiate church at Brzeg.

Upon the Protestant Reformation and the dissolution of the Brzeg collegiate chapter, the codex was kept at Ostrov (Schlackenwerth) in Bohemia. Purchased by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the original manuscript is today part of the Getty Museum collection as MS Ludwig XI 7. A facsimile edition was published in Berlin in 1972 as Der Hedwigs-Codex von 1353, edited by the German art historian Wolfgang Braunfels.