chicuacolli (FCbk3f10v)

chicuacolli (FCbk3f10v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This curved staff is especially associated with the divine force of Quetzalcoatl. The contextualizing image shows the deity as a man, bathing at night. The iconographic signs associated with him surround him in the air. This curved staff is white, with small white circles around the perimeter of the curved part. Inside the curved part are what may be flowers with four petals on each one.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

There is no gloss for this iconographic example, just the keywording of the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex, which we trust. See another depiction of Quetzalcoatl, below. He is carrying this curved staff, but there it seems to show a night sky with stars.

Added 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:

Celestial Phenomena

Flowers

Religion (Indigenous)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

curving, curvy, curved

diagonal or angled

profile view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Keywords:

bastón, bastones, curvo, religión indígena

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chicuacol(li), a curved staff, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chicuacolli
col(li), bent, twisted, or curled thing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colli-1

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

un bastón curvo

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 3: The Origin of the Gods", fol. 10v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/3/folio/10v/images/c88dc29b-23... Accessed 23 June 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: