copalli (Mdz37r)

copalli (Mdz37r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This green and white painting of the noun copalli (incense) shows a frontal view of a horizontal, striped, two-tone green leaf tied at both ends and wrapping around a granular substance, which must be the dried resin. We do not have a Nahuatl-language gloss clarifying that this is a glyph for copalli, but the Spanish gloss says this image refers to "copale."

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

pellas de
copale

Gloss Normalization: 

pellas de copale (i.e., copalli)

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
horizontal
striped
tied, bound, or bundled
Keywords: 

copal, incienso, recipientes para copal

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

A figurine made from copalli. Photo taken by Rebecca Mendoza on July 19, 2023 in Sala 2: Ritual y sacrificio of the Templo Mayor museum in Mexico City. The signage refers to the method of funneling the aromatic resin through a curled leaf and onto a maguey penca (flat branch of the plant). It is interesting how the copal in the glyph above resides in a curled leaf.

Rebecca Mendoza writes: "Copalli is the blood of trees, iezzo cuahuitl, as it is still called in Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl (Sabina Cruz de la Cruz). Multiple figurines of copal have been excavated near the Templo Mayor and were likely ritual deposits, offerings, or sacrifices associated with Tlaloc or with rain, water, and fertility more broadly. Because plant resin is not soluble in water, these materials have been well preserved and have been analyzed by scholars such as Naoli Victoria Lona and Aurora Montúfar López."

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

copal(li), incense, copal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/copalli

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)