amatl (FCbk8f37v)
This iconographic example, featuring a piece of paper (amatl) with a painting of some stolen items, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows the edges of a person who is holding up the paper that has a painting (tlacuilolli) of a bead necklace (cozcatl) that has turquoise or jadeite (chalchihuitl) beads strung on a red tie. The painting also includes a cup (tecomatl) with a stem. The cup is mostly painted turquoise blue, but the top rim is red. A horizontal, multi-colored object that is indecipherable appears at the top of the page. Apparently, these were all objects that were stolen by the man shown in the contextualizing image. The thief (ichtequini, ichtecqui) sits facing the paper, which is held upright. The setting is a courtroom (teccalli). Most of these keywords are provided by the DFC team, not glossed. The fact that this is a court record of a crime makes amatl, in this case, a document.
Stephanie Wood
In the many examples of amatl that can be returned with a Quick Search of the term, this rectangular shape is rather typical. Often paper has markings on it that suggest alphabetic writing. Amatlacuilolli echoes the suggestions of writing in words. Examples of tlacuilolli are more likely to have simple images on them, often of flowers, or curving lines and squiggles. None of the papers in this collection have colorful paintings, such as this one. This collection does have examples of thieves and thievery. Often, the goods are in a woven hamper, and strings of beads, being highly prized, appear as objects stolen (to steal, ichtequi) on more than one occasion.
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
pinturas, pintura, documentos, salas de audiencias, tribunal, tribunales, crimen, crímenes, ladrón, ladrones
ama(tl), paper, a document, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amatl
el documento
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 37v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/37v/images/0 Accessed 22 August 2025.
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.”
