atlapalli (FCbk11f58v)

atlapalli (FCbk11f58v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a bird’s wing (atlapalli, or ahtlapalli with the glottal stop) and a feather, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the Nahuatl text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a right wing in three colors, gray on the outer-most edge, then green, red, and white, going toward the center of what would have been the bird’s body. Below the wing is a single feather (ihuitl, or ihhuitl with the glottal stop), green toward the tip and white more toward the inside part.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Wing feathers, being among the largest, were highly prized. Interestingly, the term “atlapalli” could form part of a personal name. See some examples below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Hatlapalli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

atlapalli

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:

Anatomy, human body parts

Feathers

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Keywords:

alas, pájaros, pluma, plumas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

atlapal(li), a bird’s wing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atlapalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la ala del pájaro

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. 58v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/58v/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.”

Orthography:

intrusive "h" or "hu"

Historical Contextualizing Image: