citlalin (Azca12)

citlalin (Azca12)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing filled in with yellow watercolor captures the simplex glyph of a citlalin (star).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This yellow star, as the contextualizing image shows, is at the lower end and leading a long glyph for a comet. A comet that was observed in 1516 appears in Fray Diego Durán's Historia (see a reproduction of it in the Museo de Sitio de Tlatelolco, 2012, 65). It is also a star leading a dark, swirling cloud. Apparently, comets were perceived to be lead by shooting stars.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Azcatitlan, Codex (Azca)
Date of Manuscript: 

post-1550, but content about the migration from Aztlan to about 1527

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

perhaps Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Celestial Phenomena
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
tan
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
pointed (see also spiky)
symmetry
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

citlal(in), star, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/citlalin-2
popocacitlal(in), shooting star, comet, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/popocacitlalin

Image Source: 

The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=12&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: