BANDEROLE (Fr. for a " little banner ")  , a small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight,. or flying from the mast-head of a ship in battle, &c.; in heraldry, a streamer hanging from beneath the crook of a bishop's crosier and folding over the staff; in architecture, a band used in decorative sculpture of the Renaissance period for bearing an inscription, &c . Bannerol, in its main uses the same as banderole, is the term especially applied to the square banners carried at the funerals of great men and placed over the tomb .