The coat of arms documentation  with 2500 entries contains the coats of arms of the former patrician families of Berne starting from the early modern period until today. At the end of the 15th century, most of the Bernese families used their own coats of arms. In the early modern period, several versions of the same coat of arms existed side by side. At the naturalisation of persons with the same family name, the same coat of arms was sometimes used a second time. From the 18th century onwards, the strict rules of heraldry were respected even less, so that some new patricians of Berne also received the coats of arms of extinct families. In 1979, the Lesser Council of the Burgergemeinde of Berne introduced stringent rules for the use of coats of arms („Weisungen für die Eintragung der Familienwappen in das Stammregister der Burgergemeinde"). The armorials of 1932 and 2003 serve as a basis for the documentation of the Bernese coats of arms. New coats of arms from 2003 onwards will be continuously added according to the Armorial Register of the Burgergemeinde of Berne.