Chapol (MH753r)

Chapol (MH753r)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chapol (“Grasshopper”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows a grasshopper (chapolin) in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. Its wings are raised, as though in motion. The wings have a mesh pattern and the body has curving lines that give it a three-dimensionality.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This was a popular name for Nahua males in this time and place. Grasshoppers, which were prevalent in the fields, were caught and consumed as food in some areas. The iconography of the grasshoppers varies across the various writer/painters who participated in making this manuscript. But attention to detail for such a small creature is impressive. See below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

juan. chapol

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Juan Chapol

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Insects/Bugs
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
checked, cross-hatched, or mesh
curving, curvy, curved
facing right
facing upward
profile view
three-dimensionality
Keywords: 

chapulines, chapulín, insectos, insecto, nombres de hombres

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes: 

Still a notable part of the Mexican diet, these grasshoppers (chapolines, from the Nahuatl chapolin) were for sale at the Jardín Dr. Ignacio Chávez on Avenida Cuauhtemoc, Mexico City. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 18 January 2026.

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

chapol(in), grasshopper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chapolin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Chapulin

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 753r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=584&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

chapolin (Mdz32r)

Chapol (MH519r)

Chapol (MH535r)

Chapol (MH563r)

Chapol (MH617v)

chapolin (Mxnus35)

Cacha (MH904v)