He records whose arms they were and who bore the arms at the battle, the personal arms and family history of the bearer, and occasionally his fate. Dlugosz provides the historical commentary. Durink comments on the purely visual aspects of each banner, including noting the measurements. Ekdahl identifies which sections of the commentary were written by Dlugosz, which by Durink, ands which by later owners of the text. The unique value of Ekdahl's book lies in the appendix, in which the pages containing the 58 banners and the commentary are reproduced in color. An adept politician, Dlugosz was also the author of legal texts, hagiographies, early works of Polish history, and of the Insignia seu Clenodia Regni Poloniae, the earliest book on Polish heraldry. Of closer interest for students of heraldry are the chapters dealing with Jan Dlugosz. He also offers an overview of the book's origins, construction, paleography and history. Ekdahl notes that there, as in Durink's case, heraldic painting lay within the sphere of t! 60) other work attributed to him (plates XI and XII) has been compared to that of Low Countries artist Roger van der Weyden. Students of art history will be interested in the information on Stanislaw Durink, called 'one of the most important Polish artists of the Middle Ages' (p. Students of military history will appreciate his chapters on the possible presence among the Teutonic Knights of levies or mercenaries from elsewhere in Germany, on the size and organization of the Prussian army at Tannenberg, and on the role the banners played in organization and communication. In particular he comments and elaborates on Karol Gorski's 1958 critical edition of the manuscript, thus making that Polish scholar's work a bit more accessible. He reviews the extensive scholarship surrounding both the battle of Tannenberg and the Banderia Prutenorum. It survives as a rich source for turn-of-the-15th-century Central European heraldic style.Įkdahl is no stranger to the subject. Precise measurements are given for each banner, using the Polish ell as a standard, and their horizontal and vertical axes are marked. Forty-six banners are painted on the verso (left-hand) side of the page ten were added later on the recto (right-hand) side. This book depicts fifty-six banners, most of which are from Tannenberg. In 1448, Polish scholar Jan Dlugosz and painter Stanislaw Durink produced a manuscript book on the battle of Tannenberg entitled Banderia Prutenorum (Banners of the Prussians). At least some of these flags were brought to Kraków and hung in the cathedral to commemorate the victory - these, or reproductions of them, hang today in Wawel Castle. This crippled the Teutonic Order for close to a century.Īmong the booty retrieved from the field at Tannenberg were many banners bearing the arms of the Order or cities affiliated with the Order. As a result of these defeats, the Grand Master of the Order was forced to pledge fealty to the Wladislaw Jagiellon, king of the Poles and Lithuanians, for all its lands in East Prussia. So many German knights were killed at Tannenberg that the Order was unable to defend their headquarters at Marienburg, which fell a few months later. In 1410, a combined Polish and Lithuanian army defeated the army of the Knights of the Teutonic Order at the battle of Tannenburg. Originally published: 24-25 June 1995, KWHS Proceedings (Outlands) (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976)īy Lothar von Katzenellenbogen and Johannes von Narrenstein Banners from the Battle of Tannenberg Banners from the Battle of Tannenberg A critical review of Die 'Banderia Prutenorum' des Jan Dlugosz - eine Quelle zur Schlacht bei Tannenberg 1410 by Sven Ekdahl.

Schlacht bei tannenberg