Chicomoztoc (Azca11)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This brown, red, and white painting provides an iconographic example for the place name Chicomoztoc ("At the Seven Caves").

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Keywords:

cave, caves, cueva, cuevas, migration, migración, nombres de lugares

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes:

This detail in neon is part of a larger installation, “Cuenca del Anahuac” (2015), by César Moheno and Alejandro Salafranca at the Museo de la Ciudad de México. The artists incorporate what they call “pictografías” and other symbols from deep in Mexican history up to contemporary times. This one, about the famous migration stop called Chicomoztoc (“Seven Caves”), is adapted from the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca codex. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 6 February 2026.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Chicomoztoc, a place name, legendary place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chicomoztoc

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 10: The People", fol. 39v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/39v/images/0 Accessed 10 September 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:

Chicomoztoc (Azca11)

Chicomoztoc (Azca11)

oztotl (FCbk10f121r)

amochitl (FCbk11f215r)