Cipac (MH881r)

Cipac (MH881r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cipac ("Crocodile") is attested here as a man's name. The glyph really seems to be for the name Olin (movement). Compare below.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Cipactli is a day name in the religious divinatory calendar of 260 days, the tonalpohualli. Perhaps this stylized version is meant to disguise that the family who named their baby this were still consulting the calendar, a practice that some friars had hoped to root out. Alternatively, because the crocodile was a double for a the divine force or deity, Tonacatecuhtli, creator of the universe and the human race, this glyph could represent that divine force instead of the crocodile. See Anastasia Kalyuta's article in Mexicolore.

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

hernādo çipac

Gloss Normalization: 

Hernando Cipac

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous Christianity)
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
frontal view
shimmer, vibrance, shine with warmth & movement
symmetry
Keywords: 

animales, cocodrilos, caimanes, teotl, movimiento

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

cipac(tli), crocodile, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cipactli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Cocodrilo o Caiman

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 881r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=834&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography: 
"çi" for ci
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cipac (MH778r)

Cipac (MH769v)

Cipac (MH622r)

Cipac (MH624r)

Olin (MH491r)

Olin (MH834v)

Olin (MH853r)