Gallus Anonymous

Gallus Anonymus (Polonized variant: Gall Anonim) is the name traditionally given to the anonymous author of Gesta principum Polonorum (Deeds of the Princes of the Poles), composed in Latin about 1115. Gallus is generally regarded as the first historian to have described Poland. His Chronicles are an obligatory text for university courses in Poland's history. Very little is known of the author himself.

The only source for Gallus' existence is a note made by Prince-Bishop of Warmia Marcin Kromer (1512–89) in the margin of folio 119 of the "Heilsberg manuscript." It reads: Gallus hanc historiam scripsit, monachus, opinor, aliquis, ut ex proemiis coniicere licet qui Boleslai tertii tempore vixit (Gallus wrote this history, some monk, in my opinion, who lived in the time of Bolesław III, as can be conjectured from the preface.') It is not known whether Kromer intended the word "Gallus" as a proper name or as a reference to the author's nationality (Gallus in this period normally means, "an Irishman" cf. St. Gallen & in some cases "a Frenchman"), nor what he based his identification on.

The Heilsberg manuscript, one of three extant witnesses of the Gesta, was written between 1469 and 1471. From the mid-16th to 18th centuries, it was kept in the town of Heilsberg (today Lidzbark Warmiński, Poland). It was later published at the behest of Prince-Bishop of Warmia Adam Stanisław Grabowski (1698–1766).

The author of the Gesta wrote little about himself and was not written about in contemporary sources. What Gallus did write about himself may be summed up as follows: Before going to Poland, he likely spent some time in Hungary, where he met Polish duke Bolesław III Wrymouth; he was a pilgrim; he revered Saint Giles; and he knew little about Scandinavia.

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