cihuapatli (FCbk11f170r)

cihuapatli (FCbk11f170r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a medicinal herb for women in childbirth (cihuapatli, or cihuapahtli, with the glottal stop), 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 in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows three small plants, the middle one with a leader and two branches, and the other two with just two branches each. These plants have small, spaced green leaves and light brown stalks. At the top of each of the seven sprigs is a small, vertical white flower. The roots are visible. The plants are set in a landscape, which shows European artistic influence.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The name cihuapatli compounds the word for woman (cihuatl) with the word for herbal medicine (patli). This is the first image of cihuapatli entering this digital collection.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Cioapatli

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

cihuapatli

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: 
Family, Kinship, even Friendship
Flowers
Gender (female)
Health, Medicine
Plants, Flora
Sexuality, Fertility
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
green (light)
tan
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
roots are visible
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

yierbas, medicina, medicinas, mujer, mujeres, parto

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

cihuapa(tli), an herbal medicine for giving birth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cihuapatli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el zoapatle

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. 170r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/170r/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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.”

Orthography: 
"o" for u, uh, or hu
Historical Contextualizing Image: