The Arms of Košice City / 1423 - The second armorial warrant

On the 31st of January 1423 in Bratislava, King Sigismundus issues Košice with the first deed of privilege in the country to show a miniature archievement of arms for a city.

Košice’s efforts to obtain a solution to the design of its coat of arms eventually led to the appearance before His Royal Majesty of the sworn-in councillor and citizen of Košice Magister Ladislaus Knol. As the representative of the city, he was only partially successful in his attempt to have the incompleteness of the coat of arms and its formal inadequacies remedied. Sigismundus issued a deed in the form of a privilege, and so the city had in its hands the long-awaited document which was so much more than just a temporary confirmation of its right. At least now, after more than 50 years, the indisputable and permanent right to armorial bearings was finally ensured.

The second armorial warrant for the city of Košice from the year 1423.

On the other hand, it is not possible to consider as a success the fact that the entitlement from the original warrant was not extended in any way, but practically copied word-for-word, remaining as the right to use the shield bearings on the city flag, and on its dispatch and confidential seal alone. This is clear evidence of the persisting uncertainty as to how a city’s coat of arms should actually look. The shield bearings grated originally by Lodovicus the Great, and enhanced by the city's own creativity, can be further confirmed from the city’s seal matrices, whose design became the model for the miniature on the new warrant.

Miniature of the coat of arms of 1423.

In counterdrawing the matrix, the miniaturist slightly enlarged the angel figure relative to the shield and clothed it in a red robe with golden straps across the breast in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross. On the angel’s head he placed a golden diadem with a simple Latin cross rising out of it. He achieved a remarkable unifying effect in the whole miniature by satinising the surfaces of the shield of arms, and then matching the furls in the neutral green background with the satin on the shield, and the artistic effect is further intensified by the framing of the miniature with a stamped gold-leaf strip, with multicoloured flowers and curling leaves in the corners. Another remarkable feature of this armorial warrant is that there is a second shield on the same sheet, painted in the lower left corner below the text, which is the coat of arms of the mayor of the city at that time, Johanes Hebenstreyt, even though he personally was not the direct petitioner for the granting of this warrant, nor does the document mention him in any way.

/Text: Dr.JOZEF KIRST/
/Translation: A.Y.Billingham/
/© Photo: Marián Krlička/