Codex Gertrudianus (Egbert Psalter with Gertrude's Prayers)
Psalterium Egberti cum Precibus Gertrudae
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui facis mirabilia magna solus… propitiare famulae tuae Gertrudae.
Our renderingAlmighty everlasting God, you alone work great wonders — be gracious to your handmaid Gertrude.
What it is
The Codex Gertrudianus is an illuminated tenth-century psalter originally made at Reichenau for Archbishop Egbert of Trier, brought to Kyiv by Gertrude of Poland — daughter of Mieszko II Lambert and Richeza of Lotharingia — upon her marriage to Iziaslav I around 1043–1050. Between 1078 and 1086 Gertrude added approximately ninety Latin prayers of her own composition in margins and on additional folios, accompanied by five Byzantine-style miniatures — depicting herself and her son Yaropolk before St Peter, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the enthroned Christ — executed by Kyivan craftsmen. Her prayers are intensely personal: she petitions for her exiled husband's restoration, for her son Yaropolk's protection and spiritual redemption, and for her own courage in sustained political crisis, making this one of the most intimate royal devotional documents from eleventh-century Europe. Gertrude is widely regarded by Polish scholars as the first Polish writer known by name; the codex is preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cividale del Friuli (Ms. CXXXVI).
Why it still matters
Gertrude's Latin intercessory prayers are short enough for daily personal use and carry an emotional directness — petitioning God out of exile, fear, and love — that translates powerfully into contemporary situations of uncertainty or grief; the Sauerland-Haseloff critical edition (1901) and a facsimile from the Istituto dei Patriarchi make the texts accessible to Latin readers.
Kept alongside
Hedwig Codex (Codex of Saint Hedwig of Silesia)
Codex Hedvigianus / Vita Beatae Hedvigis
The Hedwig Codex is a luxurious illuminated manuscript of 204 folios produced in 1353 at the court workshop of Duke Louis I of Liegnitz-Brieg, a Silesian Piast, to celebrate his great-great-great-grandmother Saint Hedwig of Silesia (c. 1174–1243). Its 61 coloured drawings illustrate the life of Hedwig — duchess of Silesia, founder of the Cistercian convent at Trebnitz, lay Cistercian, and prolific miracle-worker — drawn from the vita composed c. 1300. The codex served the dual purpose of dynastic legitimation and devotional instruction, presenting Hedwig's rigorous asceticism, care for the poor, and eucharistic piety as the ideal model for aristocratic women. Kept in Silesia for nearly 250 years, it later passed to Bohemia; the original is now at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Ms. Ludwig XI 7), and a second copy survives at Schlackenwerth.
Vita Sanctae Kyngae ducissae Cracoviensis (Life of Saint Kinga)
Vita Sanctae Kyngae ducissae Cracoviensis
The Vita Sanctae Kyngae is a Latin hagiography of Princess Kinga (Kunigunde, 1224–1292), daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and wife of Bolesław V the Chaste of Kraków, who founded the Poor Clares monastery at Stary Sącz and entered it as a widow. Composed within a generation of Kinga's death by an anonymous Franciscan author, the vita documents her miraculous deeds, her vow of conjugal chastity, her charitable works, and her practice — the earliest attested evidence for vernacular Polish psalm use in royal private devotion — of reciting all 150 Psalms weekly in the Polish language. Kinga was beatified in 1690 and canonized by John Paul II in 1999; her cult was actively promoted by successive Piast dukes of Kraków and embedded in the dynastic sanctity of the dynasty.
Gesta Principum Polonorum (Deeds of the Princes of the Poles)
Gesta principum Polonorum
Poland's oldest narrative chronicle, the Gesta Principum Polonorum was composed at the ducal court of Bolesław III Wrymouth by an anonymous Western monk working in the tradition of Einhard's Vita Caroli. It models Christian kingship through exemplary portraits of Piast rulers, praising martial courage inseparable from prayer, generosity to the church, and dynastic unity, while condemning fratricide and pride. The text functioned as living political theology: it was read at court, transmitted to later tutors, and shaped how the Piast dynasty understood its providential role in Latin Christendom. A critical edition with English translation by Paul Knoll and Frank Schaer was published by CEU Press in 2003.