coyolli (Mdz44r)

coyolli (Mdz44r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name, Coyolapan. This component refers to the coyol(li), or bell. It is painted yellow, has a loop at the top for attaching, and it has multiple parts, including a sound chamber with a slot/opening at the bottom, and scrolls coming out of that chamber.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The scrolls would appear to represent the sound the bell makes, much like scrolls coming out of a human mouth represented speech sounds. For other scrolls that represent sound, see the glyphs for Yaonahuac, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/yaonahuac-0, and Acolnahuac, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/content/acolnahuac. Sandra Amelia Cruz Rivera has studied "the image of sound" in central Mexican codices. See: "La imagen del sonido en códices prehispánicas del centro de México: una propuesta metodológica," Pasado Abierto: Revista del CEHis. 9 (enero-juio 2019), Mar del Plata.

Added 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)
visible sound
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Music, Song, Dance
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
volute(s)
Keywords: 

scroll, scrolls, sounds, music, suena, bells, metales, campanas, campanillas, pinjantes

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

coyolli, bell, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coyolli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

bell

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el cascabel

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Coyolapan (Mdz44r)