Gallus Anonymus

Gallus Anonymus (Gall Anonim – "the Anonymous Gaul"; 11th-12th centuries) was the author of Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum (Chronicles and Deeds of the Dukes or Princes of the Poles, written in Latin, ca. 1115). He is regarded as having been the first historian to describe Poland.

National origin

Gallus' national origin is unknown. While traditional scholarship has assumed that he was French (hence "Gallus"), the idea has been elaborated by Professor Tadeusz Jasiński of Poznań University that he was a Benedictine monk from Venice – an idea that has gained currency since an interview that he gave to the Polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza.

A similar conclusion was originally reached in the 1960s by Professor Danuta Borawska. (She had also mentioned that Anonymus may have been of Le Mans origin.) She concluded that Gallus Anonymus was probably a monk from St. Gilles' Monastery in the Lido, Venice, Italy, and Professor Marian Plezia later concurred.

Gallus' writing style resembles that of Hildebert of Lavardin, and Gallus was thought to have been educated at Le Mans or, according to Zathey, at Chartres or Bec in Normandy. The clericus de penna vivens ("cleric living by the pen") is suspected by Borawska to also have written the Gesta Hungarorum (Deeds of the Hungarians) or Translatio Sti Nicolai.

According to Jasiński, he came to Poland over the Via Egnatia across the Slavic-speaking countries of "Epirus, Thrace, Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria." Jasiński found over 100 similarities when he compared the Chronicle with the Translatio Sti Nicolai. He concluded that Gallus had a native knowledge of the Italian and Slovenian languages, like many Venetian clergy of the time.

Anonymus cursus velox is also in accord with a Venetian origin. Feliks Pohorecki had in 1930 formulated the hypothesis that, if one finds an author using cursus spondiacus simultaneously with cursus velox, this fact may identify Anonymus. The Swedish Latinist Tore Janson found cursus spondiacus in Hildebert's school, and the author wrote in the Translation about a stay at Tours and the celebration of a mass in the Lido.

"There is no reason, therefore, to doubt that Gallus Anonymous [the Anonymous Gaul] was Monachus Littorensis [the Littoral Monk]."

Gallus' influence

Gallus influenced the subsequent course of Polish history, in that his version of early Polish history emphasized that the ruler's authority was inferior to that of God, as expressed by the voice of the assembled people (as in the Latin proverb, "Vox populi, vox Dei" — "The voice of the people is the voice of God"). This reinforced Poles' electoral traditions and their tendency to disobey unwanted authority. The concept, via the Chronicles of Wincenty Kadłubek and the Sermons of Stanisław of Skarbimierz, contributed to the development of the unique "Golden Liberty" that would characterize the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose kings were elected and were obliged to obey the Sejm (parliament).

Notes

External links

• Edmund Kotarski: Gall Anonim (English/Polish)
• Gazeta Wyborcza article about Gallus Anonymus Venetian origins (in Polish)
• Kim naprawdę był Gall Anonim? (in Polish)