coatapayolli (FCbk11f91r)

coatapayolli (FCbk11f91r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring what is supposed to be a ball of snakes (coatapayolli or coatatapayolli), 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 tightly coiled snakes, but they are not balled together, which is what the term would suggest. The landscape setting for these creatures shows European artistic influence.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

In nature, male snakes form a writhing clump especially when they are all going after a single female for the purpose of mating. In English, the phenomenon can be called a mating ball or a breeding ball. Rattlesnakes and other snakes will do this. The reduplicative form, coatatapayolli, which is found in the GDN, may speak to the multiplicity of snakes. A tapayolli is a ball of anything. Two examples of this term already appear in this digital collection (below). Both of these are personal names. Perhaps the babies were round and chubby at birth–?

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

cootapaiolli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

coatapayolli

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)

reduplication (in gloss/text)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Reptiles

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

redondo, bolas, serpiente, serpent, serpents, víbora, víboras, culebra, culebras

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

coatapayol(li), a ball of snakes, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coapatlayolli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la bola de serpientes

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. 91r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/91r/images/0 Accessed 16 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: