Written in Latin by an anonymous author, it was most likely completed between 1112 and 1118, and its extant text is present in three manuscripts with two distinct traditions.

Its anonymous author is traditionally called Gallus (a name which means "Gaul"), a foreigner and outcast from an unknown country, who travelled to the Kingdom of Poland via Hungary.

Gesta was likely commissioned by Poland's then ruler, Boleslaus III Wrymouth,[1] or his chancellor, Michał Awdaniec;[2] Gallus expected a prize for his work, which he most likely received and of which he lived the rest of his life.

It follows the Gesta Danorum and the next major source on the early history of Poland, the Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae, older by roughly a century.

[5] 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").

[6] The author of the Gesta is unknown, but is referred to by historiographic convention as "Gallus", a Latin word for a "person from France or Gaul" (though also, potentially, a forename).

When Polish bishop- Marcin Kromer completed his work- Folio 199, he left a footnote in it that credited Gallus as the author of Gesta which he brought up in the work.

[9] Historian Maximilian Gumplowicz identified the author as Baldwin Gallus,[10] allegedly Bishop of Kruszwica, though likewise this theory has failed to gain general acceptance.

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.

[13] Marian Plezia argued in 1984 that his writing style suggests an education in one of the schools of central France, likely Tours or Orléans.

[22] Thomas Bisson argued that the text was primarily written in the gesta genre of Latin literature as a celebration of Duke Boleslaus III Wrymouth, defending his actions and legimizing his dynasty (compare the near-contemporary Deeds of Louis the Fat).

Book one, of 31 chapters, treats the deeds of the ancestors of Boleslaus III (beginning with the legendary Piast the Wheelwright), and their wars against the neighbouring Germanic and Slavic peoples such as the Rus, the Bohemians, the Pomeranians, the Mazovians and the obscure Selencians.

[25] The earlier material tells of the rises of the Piasts from peasants to ruler, a tale common in early Slavonic folk-myth.

[26] Book two, of 50 chapters, traces the birth of Boleslaus, his boyhood deeds and documents the wars waged by himself and "count palatine" Skarbimir against the Pomeranians.

[29] Thereabouts Sandivogius (Sędziwój) of Czechłoj (d. 1476), a canon of Gniezno Cathedral and friend of the historian Jan Długosz, came into possession of it.