Nyakas Miklós: Hajdú-Bihar megye címerei / Hajdúsági Közlemények 16. (Hajdúböszörmény, 1991)
The Arms of Hajdú-Bihar County The author has undertaken to reveal the historic development of the settlements and the coats of arms of the county and to give an authentic description of them. The arms of our towns and villages have more importance than we would at first think. These allegoric symbols bear the image of spirituality, the essence of historical development of the settlements that expresses the close mental relationship of a person with his environment. The same can be especially applied for the arms of Hungary, whose variegated fate unambigously proves the nation's devotion to the symbol of the thousand year old state. Some of the arms in the book are known from history, are authentic - those bestowed by the king or the Prince of Transylvania. Most ot them though are reconstructed, based upon historic authority. In most cases seals and matrixes served as guides. About the structure of the book: In the first part the book deals with the arms of the four municipal authorities, - County Hajdú or its prdecessor, the district of Hayducks, Conty Szabolcs, County Bihar and Debrecen - found in the present county. In the second part the arms of the great Hayduck towns are depicted, in the third one those of the smaller towns settled in County Bihar by The Princes of Transylvania. The arms of villages of bondsmen, market towns and privileged places in County Bihar can be found in the fourth part, whereas in the fifth part the arms of the same sattlements in County Szabolcs. On the arms of the late Hayduck places references to military merits are obvious, therefore they are very much like the coats of arms of noblemen. In many of these cases the bestowing charter is also known, in which distinct collective privileges of nobility were given. It is remarkable that our market towns and villages put a great spell on having a distinct symbol of their own, which had judicial importance (as well). Generally an effort was made to have simple, easily intelligible arms even for illiterates. The population of these settlements made their living by working in agriculture so they were very much attached to land an tools used in agriculture. The same can be observed on the heraldry as well, though with the richness of varieties they emphasized the uniqueness of the settlement. The arms of the county were worked out during the 16-19 t h centuries and analizing heraldry we can very well demonstrate the historic layers of a given settlement. 120
