It comprises sixty-one colored drawings and inscriptions which tell the life of Saint Hedwig, High Duchess of Poland and Silesia, her family, and events related to her canonization in 1267.

[4] In spite of the manuscript being made a century after her demise, the codex has come to substitute for the holy saint, having a nearly relic-like status.

[3] Upon the Protestant Reformation and the dissolution-secularization of the Brzeg collegiate chapter in 1534,[6] the codex was moved to local gymnasium.

During the devastating events of the Thirty Years' War the book was transferred to the town of Ostrov (Schlackenwerth) in western Bohemia (this country and Silesia were part of the same Crown at that time) where was subsequently, after 1671, kept at Piarist monastery.

Two Viennese art dealers got ahold of the manuscript in 1910 and sold it to philanthropist Ritter von Gutmann.

[3] In 1938 Nazi authorities in Austria confiscated Gutmanns' art collection, yet previous owners regained the manuscript in 1947 and passed with it to Canada.

[3]The original manuscript is today part of the Getty Museum collection under the signature Ms. Ludwig XI 7 and has been in thirty-six exhibitions.

[2] Hedwig wanted to follow the duties Christ designated to his apostles which in return would grant her eternal life.

[4] What interests art historians about the manuscript are its sixty-one tinted drawings which, unlike the text, were originals instead of copies.

[3] Since its arrival to the J. Paul Getty Museum, art historians, like Jaroslav Folda and Jeffrey Hamburger, have noted that this manuscript is an exemplar of Bohemian book illumination and a testament to woman's religious devotion in the Middle Ages.

[3] Jeffrey Hamburger gives an interpretation of the manuscript as evidence of the developing status of art within monastic context.

[14] This folio is anachronistic since the people depicted were already deceased, including Saint Hedwig's parents, making the illustration an impossibility.

[2] A part of Hedwig's legend includes her leaving trails of blood coming from her feet due to her walking barefoot as an imitation of Christ and his apostles and the cold Polish winter.

12v., Duke Louis I of Liegnitz and his wife Agnes are miniature compared to Hedwig's full-page frontispiece.

12v represents her cradling Duke Henry, her deceased son who died fighting the Mongol invaders.