chalchiuhtototl (FCbk11f21v)

chalchiuhtototl (FCbk11f21v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a bird called the red-legged honeycreeper (chalchiuhtototl, literally, in Nahuatl, green-stone or jadeite bird), 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 the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a predominantly green bird with a white face and some white on its wing, standing and facing toward the viewer’s right. It is standing on a wooden twig, and this is placed in a landscape setting, which shows European artistic influence.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Added Anal: The female red-legged honeycreeper is the one that is notably green, while the male is a bright blue and black. [See an image here: https://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-red-legged-honeycreeper.html.] This digital collection has one compound hieroglyph of the personal name, Chalchiuhtototl, as shown below. This compound connects the glyph for the precious green stone to a small bird. The stone for which this bird is named, the chalchihuitl, also appears below in two examples.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Chalchiuhtototl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

chalchiuhtototl

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:

Animals: Birds

Feathers

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

pájaros, ave, aves, pluma, plumas, animales, mielerito, mieleritos, patirrojo, patirrojos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chalchiuhtoto(tl), red-legged honey creeper bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchiuhtototl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el mielero de patas rojas

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. 21v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/21v/images/0 Accessed 7 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: