amatl (CST32)
This painting of the simplex glyph for the term amatl (paper) shows what appears to be an open bound book, perhaps face down, with a red cover (perhaps leather), and apparently with white pages inside. The companion text explains that twenty quires (manos, Spanish for “hands,” a measure that may have been from the center of the chest to the tips of the fingers) of paper were intended for use in making a songbook for the local church organ.
Stephanie Wood
For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021), especially pp. 120 and 154 for the transcription of the Nahuatl and the English translation. See below for other examples of amatl and an example of a songbook.
Stephanie Wood
amatl
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
paper, papel, páginas, libros, canciónes, cancioneros, iglesias, religión
ama(tl), paper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amatl
papel
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 32, page dated 1560. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search
The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
