camotli (FCbk11f128r)

camotli (FCbk11f128r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a sweet potato (camotli, or camohtli, with the glottal stop), 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 horizontal view of a light purple sweet potato. It has a vertical spray of green leaves and stems. The contextualizing image shows a profile view of a Nahua man wearing a loincloth (maxtlatl) and a cloak (tilmatli or tilmahtli) cultivating this plant. He is facing the viewer’s left. The landscape setting suggests European artistic influences.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The camotli is called camote in Mexican Spanish today. It is a popular food item. The example from the Codex Mendoza that is included in this collection was mistaken as a cimatl, and the town for which it stands was mistakently glossed as Cimatlan. Cimatl is a root vegetable that is much more common in this collection than the camotli, perhaps because Cima was a very popular man’s name. A few examples appear below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

camotli

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:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Gender (male)

Plants, Flora

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

horizontal

profile view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

tuber, tubérculo, sweet potatoes, camotes

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

camo(tli), a sweet potato, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/camotli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el camote

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. 128r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/128r/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: