St. Florian's Psalter

Its author, first owners, and place of origin are still not certain. It was named after St. Florian Monastery in Sankt Florian, a town in Austria, where it was discovered.

• Name — Sankt Florian Psalter • Location — National Library of Poland, Warsaw • Also Known As — Psalterium trilingue; rps III 8002 • Type — Psalter • Date — Between 1370 and early 15th century • Place Of Origin — Kłodzko and Kraków, Poland • Language S — Latin, Polish, German • Illuminated By — Master of Hutter's Bible • Patron — Queen Hedwig of Poland • Material — Vellum • Size — 32 ×; 297+IV folios • Format — Double columns • Script — Gothic minuscule • Contents — Trilingual translation of the Book of Psalms • Previously Kept — St. Florian Monastery, Sankt Florian, Austria • Discovered — 1827

It is not known exactly who was original owner of the book. Most likely it belonged to a female member of the House of Anjou (wife or daughter of Louis I of Hungary), or it was made for Jadwiga of Poland. Its creator is also unknown, and even its place of origin is uncertain, with scholars seeing either Bohemia (Kłodzko) or Lesser Poland (Kraków) (or both) as the likely regions of origin. The text contains several examples of central Lesser Polish dialect, and some scholars suggested that the work might have been carried out or at least influenced by bishop Piotr Wysz. Polish historian of literature, Julian Krzyżanowski, suggested that the text is a copy of an older work, perhaps the St. Kinga's Psalter (whose very existence is still disputed by scholars) though admitted that there's scant evidence for this. It was rediscovered by local librarian, Father Josef Chmel, in 1827 in St. Florian Monastery, in the town of Sankt Florian near Linz, Austria. It first published in print in Vienna in 1834, by Polish publisher Stanislaw Jan Borkowski. In 1931 the psalter was purchased by Polish government for the National Library of Poland. During World War II it was evacuated to Romania and later to France and Canada, and returned to Poland in 1959. By 1939, whole book was published in Lwow by Ludwik Biernacki. Currently, the book is kept at the National Library of Poland in Warsaw. From May 2024, the manuscript is presented at a permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth.

It is the oldest surviving translation of the Books of Psalms into the Polish language. The translation from Latin into Polish, however, is considered very poor. The psalter is also the oldest Polish language cultural artifact (zabytek) surviving to modern day in intact form.