Gesta Principum Polonorum - Title

Title

The title intended for or originally given to the work is not clear. In the initial capital of the text in the Zamoyski Codex, a rubric styles the work the Cronica Polonorum, while in the same manuscript the preface of Book I opens with Incipiunt Cronice et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum (" begins the chronicles and deeds of the dukes or princes of the Poles"). The incipit for Book II entitles the work Liber Tertii Bolezlaui ("Book of Bolesław III"), and that for Book III Liber de Gestis Boleslaui III ("Book of the Deeds of Bolesław III"). These however are not reliable as such things are often added later.

The latest editors and only English translators of the text style it Gesta principum Polonorum ("the deeds of the princes of the Poles"), primarily to acknowledge its faith with the gesta genre (and the likely authenticity of this part of the title) and to avoid confusion with the later work known as the Chronica principum Poloniae ("chronicle of the princes of Poland").

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