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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. The title means ''Blazons of the Prussians''.〔According to ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'', Gothic has ''bandwa'', "sign", from which Germanic ( *bandwa- ), "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- ), 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.〕 ''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. ==Historical circumstances of the Banderia== The work describes the gonfalons, or battle flags,〔The original Germanic ( *gundfanon- ) meant "battle-flag". According to ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary'', this descends through Old High German ''gunfano'', "war flag" to Middle French and modern English gonfanon, a very rare word, and through Italian ''gonfalone'' to English gonfalon, synonymous with gonfanon. The modern terms have ceased to mean battle flags except when historians use them to refer to battle flags.〕 collected from the field after the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 AD. This battle was a major confrontation between the Teutonic Order and the allied forces of Poles and Lithuanians, whom the Order was trying to conquer. At that time, the Order had succeeded in subjecting or eliminating the western Balts, including the Prussians; however, the Teutonic Knights were decisively defeated by the joint forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the command of the Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło. At the end of the battle, the major officers of the Order lay dead on the field beside the standards under which they had fought. Some units escaped with their standards. The Banderia does not describe all the order's flags. The flags were collected and stored at Wawel Cathedral in Cracow. They are known to have been there in 1603, after which they disappeared. They have been recreated, starting in the 1900. In October 2009, as part of the preparations for the battle's anniversairy, Polish scholars and artists in Kraków have finished reconstructing all known standards.〔 Magdalena Piwnicka, ''Znaki świetnego zwycięstwa'', Focus - Historia, Nr 7-8. 2010〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Banderia Prutenorum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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