chiconpohualli pesos (Chav1)

chiconpohualli pesos (Chav1)
Compound Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This series of compound glyphs, each representing twenty pesos, serves as a anotation for 140 pesos (chiconpohualli pesos). It shows five plus two more of these compound signs representing 20 pesos each. Each 20-peso sign is a red crescent with a corn cob inside it, a double logogram. The segmentation into visible kernels is what suggests maize. A vertical red line separates the two groups, five on the left and two on the right. Chicon- is a truncation of the number seven (chicome). Pohualli means one count of twenty.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The reference is to the number of pesos, and corn is not literally present. The association between corn cobs and the number twenty is a cultural one. Twenty is a "full count" in the vigesimal system, and twenty ears of corn was probably a customary grouping.

The line separating five from two twenties is a reminder that the chico- (chicu-, chiuh-) start to numbers larger than five (such as chicome, seven) contains an old root that Richard Andrews calls a "special form of the adverbialized nounstem," referring to "one side."

See some other configurations of groups of pesos below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

chicō poualli.

Gloss Normalization:

chiconpohualli

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Chavero, Codex (Chav)

Date of Manuscript:

1578

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories:

numbers

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Markets, Commerce, Economy

Money, Coins, Prices

Numbers, Math

Tributes, Taxation, Service

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Number of Parts, Other / Comment:

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

números, monedas, pesos, dinero, coins, money, numbers, maize, corn

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chiconpohual(li), 7 x 20 = 140, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chiconpohualli
peso, a unit of money, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/peso

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

140 pesos

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Chavero of Huexotzinco (or Códice Chavero de Huexotzinco), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_03246_001/?sp=1

Image Source, Rights:

The Codex Chavero of Huexotzinco (or Códice Chavero de Huexotzinco) is held by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México. It is published online by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: