caltatapach (FCbk11f93v)

caltatapach (FCbk11f93v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph features an assassin bug (caltatapach), 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 bird’s eye view of a bug with large, shell-like wings on its back, eight legs, two antennae, and ridges on its body. The tip of its rear end bumps up against the roof of a house (calli), which serves as a phonetic indicator that the bug’s name starts with cal-. This building is shown in a partial ¾ view, facing toward the viewer’s right. Shading gives it some three-dimensionality. This, and the landscape setting visible in the contextualizing image shows European artistic influences.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This bug’s name derives in part from tapachtli, seashell. It may be that the wings are hard like shells. This digital collection has no other examples of the caltatapach bug at this point in time (November 2025). While this is not a traditional compound hieroglyph, it is a late expression of that form of writing.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Caltatapach

Gloss/Text Normalization:

caltatapach

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)

reduplication (in gloss/text)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Insects & Bugs

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

facing right

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

left to right

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

bicho, bichos, chinches, bugs, caracol, caracoles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

caltatapach, the assassin bug, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/caltatapach

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el chinche besucona

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. 93v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/93v/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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: