Acamapichtli (FCbk8f1r)

Acamapichtli (FCbk8f1r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound glyph for the personal name Acamapichtli (often shortened to Acampich, perhaps “Handful of Reed Arrows”), who was a ruler of Tenochtitlan in the fifteenth-century, shows an arm and hand reaching in from the left. The hand (maitl) is holding a fistful (mapichtli) of vertical reed (acatl) arrows. The hand is flesh-toned, the reeds are yellow, the feather fletching on the arrows is gray and white (probably eagle feathers), and the decoration at the top of the arrows involves red and yellow horizontal stripes.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Note the other glyphs for Acamapichtli, below, where the colors of the arrows and their decorations can vary, along with the direction they are held.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Acamapich

Gloss Normalization:

Acamapich

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

vertical, upright

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

Acamapichtzin, caña, cañas, flecha, flechas, puño, puñado, mano, manos, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Acamapich(tli), first ruler of Tenochtitlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acamapichtli
aca(tl), reed(s) or arrow(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl
ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
mapich(tli), fist, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mapichtli
ma, take or capture, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ma-0
mi(tl), arrow, dart, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Puñado de Flechas (nombre de un gobernante)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 1r, Getty Research Institute, https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/1v/images/0 . Accessed 20 June 2025.

Image Source, Rights:

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

Orthography:

intrusive comma

Historical Contextualizing Image: