Inscriptions on the Military Banners in Poland. An Attempt at a Typology

Abstract

The paper seeks to systematise the inscriptions that accompanied heraldic and inconographic images on the Polish military banners and flags over the ages. He proposes to divide them into four groups. The first one comprises the inscriptions that inform about the owner or user of a banner. The second group entails inscriptions called foundational; they contain some data about the founders or makers of this kind of objects. The third group includes commemorative inscriptions by means of which some important events from the history of a unit or its tradition were commemorated. The fourth group includes catchwords in the form of maxims, mottoes, and apostrophes. Most often they had an elevated and solemn character. In practice, the inscriptions that belonged to various groups are often put together. Usually, they contain some important information and philosophical ideas.