Last modified: 2005-04-16 by phil nelson
Keywords: vexillology (history of) | smith whitney | orenski peter |
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Znamierowski says (my translation from the French edition): "In 1962, Whitney Smith founded the Massachusetts Flag Research Center, the first professional vexillological institute in the world. He invented the word "vexillology" (from Latin "vexillum"), now fully accepted and used in several languages.
However, the word "vexillology" seems to predate 1962, since Smith himself wrote: "While the use of flags goes back to the earliest days of human civilization, the study of that usage in a serious fashion is so recent that the term for it (vexillology, coined by the author of this book) did not appear in print until 1959."
I can't totally agree with Smith, who seems to mean "there was no
vexillologist before me". It is quite clear form that
"Flaggenbuch" is a masterpiece of serious vexillology, even if
Neubecker was primarily an heraldist. In science, the "serious
fashion" to study a given topic depends on the general evolution of
knowledge and methodology. The early flag charts are indeed bristled with
mistakes and approximations, as our site probably is, but we should not ignore
the contribution of the early compilers to modern vexillology.
Ivan Sache, 14 April 2002
Znamierowski doesn't say here that Smith invented the word vexillology in 1962, but that the MFRC was founded then, and that Smith also invented the word.
The tone of Smith.'s statement may be a little self-serving, but his words don't constitute a claim that there were no vexillologists until 1959--only that they didn't call themselves that. Until someone comes up with evidence to the contrary, I'd say that Smith invented the word--but not the field of study--in 1959. Clearly, Neubecker was a serious flag scholar, as was LeGras 80 years earlier. Which is to say that Smith oversells his point about how recent the serious study of flags is. (Well, OK, recent compared to how long flags have been around, but really...)
The reference to Neubecker raises a question in my mind: does the German
word for vexillology, "Flaggenkunde," predate or postdate 1959?
Joe McMillan, 15 April 2002
The Dutch term was (is?) 'banistiek', the study of 'banieren' - banners. According to Sierksma - Vlaggen - symbool - protocol, 1963, banistiek predates the newer term 'vexillology', although the book lacks precise data.
My Dutch dictionary lists:
- Banistiek
- Vexillologie
- Vlaggenkunde
as synonyms.
In 1963 Sierksma writes: Like the wapenkunde was given a foreign name, derived from the heraut or herald - heraldry - so for vlaggenkunde a expressive name exists in /banistiek/ , which is connected with the word banner, baander. English-speaking countries know the more recent vexillology, which was derived from Latin vexillum: Flag, standard. (Translated in part.)
Since Flaggenkunde and vlaggenkunde are constructs (you could attach "kunde" to any topic to indicate knowledge of the topic), the concepts will predate the recorded use quite a bit. Eg. though Sierksma in 1963 tells us "banistiek" is older than "vexillology", and uses "vlaggenkunde" as a common word (and uses both words in Sierksma as well), neither are in the Van Dale of 1961, and only the former is in the Van Dale of 1975. (Van Dale being the major dictionary in The Netherlands).
However, Siegel and Neubecker both appear two write from a position of
being the only authority on flags at the time, and as Sierksma indicates,
interest in flags blossomed after the second world war. I expect the concept
of the study of flag is from after the war, with the Germanic version coming
first, simply because they "were already there". And they said
"vlaggenkunde", and there was vlaggenkunde.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 5 May 2002
The word "Vexillology" was first coined by Whitney Smith in the first half of 1957. It first appeared in print in The Arab World magazine (Vol 5, No. 10 - October 1958, pp. 12-13). Full details of the origins of Vexilology is published in my book VEXILLOLOGY - A 25th. Anniversary and A Bibliography of Flag Literature (1989). Ralph Bartlett, 17 April 2002
Editorial Note This discussion is based upon an article "Time for new terms in vexillology?" by Whitney Smith (Flag Bulletin, XL, No 6, 202, 2001) where he proposed the following categories for flag enthusiasts:
Well I think there are three problems:
1. Whitney Smith (in this article) does not draw the line between vexillologists and vexillophiles as being between those "scholarly studying flags" and those "interested in flags as a personal hobby". Most of us "study (scholarly or not) flags as a hobby", and do not earn our living from this study. What Whitney Smith defines as vexillophile, is more a person "collecting flags and/or flag-related information". He does not use the term "hobby" in this context.
2. However, for an article introducing "new" terms, Whitney Smith does not clearly define these terms. The difference between a vexillophile and a vexillologist (in his sense) is far from clear. I would say, anybody collecting, discussing, publishing "flag information", might be called a vexillologist, provided he/she wants to contribute to the common knowledge on flags. Anybody "only" collecting flags (similar to collecting stamps), or collecting some "flag information", but not sharing this information with others interested, by publishing in a flag journal or FOTW, or the like, might be called a vexillophile. I want to make the difference between those "sharing the wealth" (vexillologists) and those just "collecting for their own enjoyment" (vexillophiles). A problem we certainly frequently encounter in vexillology, is the publication of ill-researched information or dubious information without stating the sources. One of the mainstays of scientific method is to clearly state, where one's knowledge comes from. Is it own observation, own experiment, a written source or an archival source? The reader of any vexillological publication (in print or in the WWW) should be able to trace down the way of all the information presented.
3. The most difficult question, however, had been asked in an earlier article by Peter Orenski (Flag Bulletin no. 200) with the title Quo vadimus? An essay on the state and future of vexillology". As far as I know, we have not discussed this article here, although I think we should do that. Peter's question was: "Is