acuitlachtli (FCbk11f33v)

acuitlachtli (FCbk11f33v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a rare or mythical water animal called the acuitlachtli, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows the animal in profile, facing right. It is sitting on its haunches with its front legs held out straight forward. It is hairy with a long tail. Its claws are notably long and sharp. Another image of this animal appears on folio 34r.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first acuitlachtli to enter this collection, but there are two personal name glyphs for Cuetlach. These presumably refer simply to wolves, and they do not refer to water. But the hair on the animal’s neck does curl and swirl something like water. See below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Acuitlachtli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

acuitlachtli

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Misc.

Hair (human or animal)

Religion (Indigenous)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

animales acuáticos, agua, cuadrúpedo, mamífero

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

acuitlach(tli), a “water wolf,” a mythical animal, perhaps a nutria or an otter, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acuitlachtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, una nutria de río

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 33v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/33v/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: