Banderia Prutenorum

The Banderia Prutenorum is a manuscript of 48 parchment sheets, 18.6 by 29.3 cm (7.3 by 11.5 inches), composed by Jan Długosz and illuminated by Stanisław Durink, listing 56 vexillae, or banners, of the Order of the Teutonic Knights.^[1] The title means Blazons of the Prussians.^[2] Prutenorum is the genitive plural of Pruteni, Prussians.

In Polish the name is Chorągwie Pruskie. Chorągwie can mean banner, standard, or regiment. The heraldic term blazon in English is probably the exact meaning.

^ Długosz, Jan (1448). Banderia Prutenorum (in Latin). Jagiellonian Digital Library. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
^ According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Gothic has bandwa, "sign", from which Germanic *bandwa- Archived 2006-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, "sign", is reconstructed. From this comes Late Latin banderia, which Webster's hypothesizes has a Latin formative suffix, -arium. It could as well be from a Germanic plural. Banner comes from it, but the earlier meaning was not the cloth but the signs. Blazon has a similar origin from a different but synonymous root, *bhel- Archived 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, at least in the sense of "sign." In Middle English it has the connotation of shield, but this also is a secondary development. Heraldry originates with the Roman army, who put their unit signs on shields but not flags. Banderia therefore imitate the shield blazons in cloth. Royal and national "blazons" go beyond the original intent, which was only unit identification, and are therefore a later development.

[1] Długosz, Jan (1448). Banderia Prutenorum (in Latin). Jagiellonian Digital Library. Retrieved 21 September 2021.

[2] According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Gothic has bandwa, "sign", from which Germanic *bandwa- Archived 2006-10-18 at the Wayback Machine, "sign", is reconstructed. From this comes Late Latin banderia, which Webster's hypothesizes has a Latin formative suffix, -arium. It could as well be from a Germanic plural. Banner comes from it, but the earlier meaning was not the cloth but the signs. Blazon has a similar origin from a different but synonymous root, *bhel- Archived 2006-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, at least in the sense of "sign." In Middle English it has the connotation of shield, but this also is a secondary development. Heraldry originates with the Roman army, who put their unit signs on shields but not flags. Banderia therefore imitate the shield blazons in cloth. Royal and national "blazons" go beyond the original intent, which was only unit identification, and are therefore a later development.

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