The main spectroscopic properties (absorption, emission, decay times) of Pr3+-doped Ca4GdO(BO3)(3) (GdCOB) have been determined for the three X, Y, Z polarizations. The Judd-Ofelt analysis, extended to anisotropic crystals, normalized and modified to take into account the influence of the 4f5d lowest energy level, has been performed and gives reasonable agreement with experimental data. The band energy approach is used for estimations of probabilities of relative cross relaxations and multiphonon relaxation. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.