amatl (Mdz23r)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for paper (amatl) has been digitally carved from compound glyph that represents the place name, Amacoztitlan. It is a square piece of yellow paper.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This glyph for amatl is a square piece of paper, unlike the rolls of white paper with ties that are more standard in the Codex Mendoza. Thus, its color and shape are both worth noting. Today, one can purchase rectangles of amatl, and they come in multiple colors including a natural, undyed color, which can also be brown, but most early amatl was either a lighter color naturally or was whitewashed. Here's a sample page from the sixteenth-century Codex Boturini, one that was not whitewashed.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

papers

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

paper

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el papel de amate

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 23 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 56 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).