aoztotl (FCbk11f245v)

aoztotl (FCbk11f245v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of a cave full of water (aoztotl), 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 a rectangular cave surrounded by square rocks on the ground. The cave is full of water that swirls with lines of current and shoots out of the cave toward the viewer’s right, with six little splashes, each one ending in alternating droplets (or beads) and turbinate shells. Growing out of this horizontal water stream grow what appear to be tules with cattails. The landscape surrounding the cave and below the stream with tules has clumps of grass and perhaps an agave. Hovering above the cave is a swirling cloud that contains an eye and a stemmed cup.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The eye (ixtli?) and the stemmed cup or goblet (xicalli or tecomatl?) might be Nahuatl hieroglyphs, or perhaps they are images borrowed from the Catholic religion, possibly the all-seeing eye of God and a chalice for the Eucharist, referring to something sacred about the water source in an expression of Indigenous Christianity.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Aoztotl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

aoztotl

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)

visual movement

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Religion (Indigenous Christianity)

Shells

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

shading and parallel line hatching

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

manantial, cavernas, cueva, cuevas, espadaña, espadañas, zacate, césped, paisaje, remolino, remolinos, cáliz, cálices, nube, nubes, movimiento

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

aoztotl, a cave filled with water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/aoztotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la caverna de agua

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. 245v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/245v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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: