cilin (FCbk11f212v)

cilin (FCbk11f212v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex hieroglyph features a small turbinate shell (cilin). 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 shell is in a group of other color variations of this one. This one is upright, with the swirl at the top and shading along the open edge, giving it a three-dimensionality. Three-D drawings were learned by these Nahua tlacuilos from colonial teachers in Mexico City who were introducing European artistic traditions.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This digital collection contains many cilin shells, especially on hieroglyphs of water, but they are rarely glossed as such. Nevertheless a few are glossed, and these are personal names or elements in place names. See some examples below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

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)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Shells

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

caracolito, caracolitos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cil(in), a small turbinate shell, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cilin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el caracol chiquito

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. 212v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/212v/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:

dropped "n"

Historical Contextualizing Image: