The Battle of Liegnitz in Vita beatae Hedwigis.
Silesia, Poland, 1353AD.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XI 7, folio 11v.

Manuscript Title: Vita beatae Hedwigis
Object Title: The Battle of Liegnitz; The Beheading of Heinrich and His Soul Carried by Angels to Heaven
Artists/Makers: Unknown maker, Nicolaus of Prussia
Culture: Silesian
Place: Silesia, Poland (Place Created)
Date: 1353
Medium: Tempera colors, colored washes, and ink on parchment bound between wood boards covered with red-stained pigskin
Object Number: Ms. Ludwig XI 7 (83.MN.126), fol. 11v
Dimensions: Leaf: 34.1 × 24.8 cm (13 7/16 × 9 3/4 in.)
Marks: Inscribed fol. 148, a scribal colophon: "Explicit legenda maior et minor de Sancta Hedwigi anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo quinquagesimo tercio consumata. Comparata autem per inclitum ducem dominum Lodewicum ducem Slesie et dominum Legniczensem in honore beatae Hedwigis quondam ducisse Slesie tociusque Polonie. Scripta est autem per manus Nycolai Pruzie foris civitatem Lubyn."
Alternate Titles: Život Sv. Hedviky (Published Title) The Life of the Blessed Hedwig (Translated Title)
Previous Attribution: Court workshop of Duke Ludwig I of Liegnitz and Brieg (Polish, 1364 - 1398)

In 1353 Duke Ludwig I of Liegnitz and Brieg and his wife Agnes commissioned this manuscript, which narrates the story of the life and works of Saint Hedwig in Latin (Vita beatae Hedwigis). One of the Duke's ancestors, Hedwig was born a wealthy noblewoman in the 1200s and lived a devout life with her husband Henry I and their children at the court of Silesia, a German-Polish border region. Hedwig founded numerous religious houses, including Silesia's first nunnery at Trebnitz. After her husband's death, she retired to this convent, where she lived an austere life dedicated to helping the poor. Although she never took religious vows, her self-mortification and charitable deeds and the healing miracles associated with her tomb led to her canonization in 1267.

This manuscript is the earliest extant copy of Hedwig's biography that includes illuminations. An image of the manuscript's patrons venerating Hedwig visually sets the book in the context of its creation, and a sequence of narrative images follows the story of Hedwig's life. At the duke's death, he left this manuscript to the shrine of Saint Hedwig at Brieg, where it came to be considered a relic of the saint herself.
Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum