citlalaxolotl (FCbk11f76r)

citlalaxolotl (FCbk11f76r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a star-covered axolotl (a type of salamander), 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 a bird’s eye view of this citlalaxolotl. It has a gray and brown body, with most of the brown coloring in patches on the animal’s back. The feet are webbed, and the gills are external. All feet seem to have only four digits, but the back ones should have five. The entire surface of the animal’s skin has small circular white spots, which contribute to the citlalin (star) reading of the name.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Signs for stars increasingly took on multiple points as European artistic influence increased over the sixteenth century. But the earlier Nahuatl hieroglyphs show stars as seen here in this record. See some additional examples below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Citlalaxolotl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

citlalaxolotl

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:

Animals: Misc.

Celestial Phenomena

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

spotted or mottled

Keywords:

ajolotes, salmandra, salmandras, estrella

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

axolo(tl), a type of salamander, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/axolotl
citlal(in), star, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/citlalin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

un tipo de ajolote manchado a manera de estrellas al estilo prehispánico

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. 76r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/76r/images/0 Accessed 29 October 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: