calli (Mdz28r)

calli (Mdz28r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element of a house or building (calli) doubles as the compound sign for the place name, Huapalcalco. The building is shown in a rare frontal view that allows the artist to emphasize the many beams this construction had (not all buildings had so many beams, apparently). These terracotta orange (wooden) beams are called (huapalli). The building is characterized by right angles, and it has special designs just below and on top of the roof.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
year name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
crenelated
elevation view
frontal view
rectangular
right angle(s)
Keywords: 

houses, buildings, architecture, casas, edificios, arquitectura

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

calli, house or building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

building, house

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 28 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 66 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).

See Also: 

Huapalcalco (Mdz28r)