calyahualli (FCbk11f244v)

calyahualli (FCbk11f244v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of round house (calyahualli), 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 house made primarily of adobe bricks. It is completely round, with no corners. A flower motif runs along the top of the building, just below the roof. The doorway, framed with wooden beams, is open.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first calyahualli to enter this digital collection, although one can find other round buildings in the form of structures behind the steam bath house (temazcalli), and there is one Christian church tower that appears round.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Caliaoalli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

calyahualli

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:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Flowers

Gender (male)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

casas, edificio, edificios, redondos, redondas, flor, flores, arquitectura

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

calyahual(li), a round house, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calyahualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la casa redonda

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. 244v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/244v/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: