Let us take a look at the Three Wise Men from the East, as portrayed by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, a Cistercian monk from the abbey in Mogiła, near Kraków, and at the long history of the prayer book.

The Journey of Olbracht Gasztołd’s Prayer Book to Germany

The manuscript in question is a priceless artefact of literature and the art of illumination. It is housed in the University Library in Munich and , for nearly 350 years after its creation, was unknown to Polish audiences. Its history can be traced from the moment it appeared in the collection of Ferdynand Orbán ( 1655‒1732), a German scholar, Jesuit, and collector of art and books. His book collection was transferred to the university library in Landshut, Bavaria, in 1802, and to the University Library in Munich in 1838. From there, the prayer book was transferred on loan to the Bavarian National Museum in 1888, only to return to the Munich library’s collection in recent years.

It is not certain how the manuscript came to be in what is now Germany. It may have ended up there having been inherited in succession by Barbara Radziwiłłówna , the wife of Stanisław, the last of the Gasztołds, her second husband , the last of the Jagiellons, Sigismund Augustus, his relatives, the Vasa family, and subsequently to the Wittelsbachs of the Palatinate line through the marriage of Princess Anna Katarzyna Vasa ( 1619–1651), daughter of Sigismund III, to Prince Philip William ( 1615‒1690). The confessor to his son , Father John William (1658‒1716), was none other than Ferdinand Orbán, the first known owner of the work since the time of its founder. The prayer book may also have found its way into a foreign collection , sharing the fate of many other books from Polish libraries plundered by the Swedes during the ‘Deluge’ in the mid-17th century.

Stanisław Samostrzelnik and his prayer books

The first mention of Olbracht Gasztołd’s Prayer Book in Polish documents dates from 1874 and comes from Józef Łepkowski ( 1826‒1894, archaeologist, historian and encyclopaedist). A year later, Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828–1894) attempted to purchase the book, but unfortunately to no avail.

Created in 1528, the prayer book is one of the four ‘flagship’ works by Stanisław Samostrzelnik ( c. 1490‒1541) that have survived to this day. All are now held in collections outside Poland. Today, these prayer books bear the names of their patrons: Sigismund I the Old ( 1524, London, British Library), Queen Bona ( 1527, Oxford, Bodleian Library), Krzysztof Szydłowiecki ( 1527, currently divided between the Biblioteca Trivulziana and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan) and Olbracht (Wojciech) Gasztołd ( 1528, Universitätsbibliothek der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich). The work commissioned by the Lithuanian magnate is the only one of them to have been written in Polish .

These valuable manuscripts were produced at a time when the ‘art of illuminating books’ was gradually becoming a thing of the past due to the invention and widespread adoption of printing and woodcut engravings. The illuminated and handwritten book became a luxury item , accessible only to the wealthiest clients, who could afford to employ a group of artists and scribes for many months.

Olbracht Gasztołd’s Prayer Book – a brief description

The ‘octavo’ format prayer book contains 232 leaves of high-quality vellum, measuring 17.7 x 12.9 cm; the edges of the leaves are gilded. In its wooden binding, covered in amaranth-coloured velvet, it measures 18.3 x 13 cm. Both covers are adorned with five four-sided fittings each of gilded silver, depicting scenes from the Old Testament: on the front – Noah with his sons, Cain and Abel, Samson with the lion, and the Jews gathering manna; in the centre, the figure of the High Priest; on the back cover – David and Goliath, Judith with the head of Holofernes, Gideon and Moses receiving the tablets of the Ten Commandments, with Abraham in the centre. The silver clasps bear images of Eve and Adam. The manuscript is written in ornate Renaissance Fraktur ( a variant of Gothic script) on gold-lined pages, within framed panels.

Signed on several pages: SCP ( Stanislaus Claratumbensis pinxit, from the Latin name of the monastery in Mogila – Clara Tumba) and precisely dated on one of the pages: 1528 . The text consists of three separate parts: ‘The Soul’s Ascent’ ( pages 1‒90), ‘The Hours of the Virgin Mary’ ( pages 91‒205), Prayers to Selected Saints ( folios 207‒230).

This exquisitely crafted prayer book is adorned with 16 full-page miniatures in the borders ( decorative frames), topped with an arch. These are, in order: Christ standing in the tomb, Saint Jerome, The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Adoration of the Infant, The Announcement to the Shepherds, The Adoration of the Magi, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt, the Presentation in the Temple, Saint Adalbert, Saint Nicholas, Saint Anne the Third, Saint Barbara, Saint Catherine, and Saint Christopher.

Many pages are adorned with full-page borders featuring plant and spiral motifs on a gold background, as well as decorative margins. The miniature on page 161v. (verso), depicting the Adoration of the Magi , is surrounded by a multicoloured border featuring a lush plant tendril. The scene of the Three Kings’ arrival at the stable is enclosed within a tight, rectangular frame topped by an arch. The kings, accompanied by a retinue of people and animals, present their gifts to the infant Jesus seated on Mary’s lap. The Infant and His Mother appear awestruck, averting their gaze from the precious gifts and the exotic visitors. In the figure of the standing king wearing a ‘pątlik’ (headdress), we see a profile view of the ruler’s head familiar from portraits of King Sigismund the Old.

A cryptoportrait of the reigning monarch in the Adoration of the Magi scene was a popular artistic device. The number of figures, their glittering, opulent robes and the intensity of the colours contrasting with the gold heighten the joyful, extraordinary atmosphere of the event. The decorative, courtly style of illumination characteristic of Samostrzelnik transforms even a humble stable into an arcaded structure. The landscape-like, painterly background emphasises the principles of Renaissance visual composition.

Olbracht Gasztołd – the wealthiest Lithuanian

The patron of the prayer book, Olbracht (Wojciech) Gasztołd ( c. 1480–1539), Grand Chancellor of Lithuania and Voivode of Vilnius (1522), was a friend of Piotr Tomicki, Bishop of Kraków, and knew well Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Grand Chancellor of the Crown, the first patrons of *Samostrzelnik* . Olbracht Gasztołd came from a distinguished, magnate Lithuanian family (which, following the Union of Horodło, bore the Abdank coat of arms) that resided in Gieraniony and Tykocin. The wealthiest man in Lithuania, bestowed with the title of Count by the Pope and the Emperor, he rose to ever higher positions of state. He fought against the Tatars and Muscovy (at the Battle of Orsha) and fiercely rivalled the Radziwiłłs for supremacy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He even opposed King Sigismund I the Old as an opponent of the union with the Kingdom of Poland. Gasztołd’s son, Stanisław, married Barbara, the daughter of Jerzy Radziwiłł, who later became the wife of King Sigismund Augustus.

Of the four famous manuscripts of *Samostrzelnik*, only the one commissioned by Gasztołd was written in Polish, whilst it was preceded solely by a Latin preface addressed to King Sigismund the Old . As this preface was identical to that in the King’s prayer book, the book was long regarded as belonging to the monarch, who was also depicted as the King in the scene of adoration. It was only through a more detailed analysis that elements emerged which unequivocally indicated that this was Gasztołd’s prayer book. The H/Abdank (W) coat of arms appears several times in the decoration and text.

Stanisław Samostrzelnik’s workshop – traces of it in Gasztołd’s prayer book

A portrait of Olbracht Gasztołd as the founder and owner of the prayer book can be seen in the very first miniature – he is kneeling by Christ’s tomb, with a chain bearing the chancellor’s seal pendant around his neck. On another page, the initials AG – Adalbertus Gastoldus – are visible, next to the Abdank coat of arms.

Not all the illuminations in the manuscript are the work of Samostrzelnik. Scholars agree that the artist executed the painted decoration with the help of his colleagues . His fame and the growing number of commissions required the workshop to work as a team, which suggests that Samostrzelnik’s initials ‘S.C.’ (Stanislaus Claratumbensis), which appear in many manuscripts, should be interpreted as a mark of the workshop rather than evidence that the artist painted the scene himself.

Whether executed personally by Stanisław Samostrzelnik or with the involvement of his workshop, these colourful works of art on parchment have been enchanting viewers for nearly five hundred years with their serene beauty and precision of execution. All four prayer books were on display in 2023 at the exhibition ‘The Image of the Golden Age’ at the Wawel Royal Castle.