Author
The author of the Gesta is unknown, but is referred to by historigraphic convention as "Gallus", a Latin word for a "person from France or Gaul" (though also, potentially, a forename). The only source for Gallus' existence comes not from the text but rather from a note made by historian and Bishop of Warmia Martin Kromer (1512–89) in the margin of folio 119 of the "Heilsberg manuscript". It is not known why Bishop Kromer called the author Gallus.
In Gottfried Lengnich's printed edition, Lengnich named the author as "Martin Gallus" based on a misreading of Jan Długosz, where Gallus was conflated with Martin of Opawa. Martin Gallus became the standard name in German scholarship for some time to come, though this identification is now rejected by most historians. Historian Maximilian Gumplowicz identified the author as Baldwin Gallus, allegedly Bishop of Kruszwica, though likewise this theory has failed to gain general acceptance.
There have been frequent attempts to identify Gallus' origins from clues in the text . Marian Plezia and Pierre David both argued that Gallus came from Provence in what is now southern France, and was closely connected with the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Gilles. Another historian, Karol Maleczyński, argued that the evidence suggests a connection with Flanders, while Danuta Borawska and Tomasz Jasiński have argued based on stylistic evidence that he was connected with Venice and that he authored an anonymous translatio of St Nicholas. Marian Plezia argued in 1984 that his writing style suggests an education in one of the schools of central France, likely Tours or Orléans.
Plezia and others further argue that Gallus' extensive knowledge of Hungary testify to connections there, postulating a connection to the Benedictine monastery of Somogyvár in Hungary, a daughter-house of St Gilles'. He appears to have been closely connected to the Awdańcy clan, a kindred of Norse or Rus origin who had been successful under Boleslaw II, and who had been exiled to Hungary but returned to prominence in Polish affairs during the reign of Boleslaw III. As he stated that "the city of Gniezno ... means "nest" in Slavic", it is thought that the author may have known the language of the country. All that is certain is that he was a monk and a non-Slav living in Poland, perhaps on a Polish benefice.
Read more about this topic: Gesta Principum Polonorum
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