cozcatl (FCbk12f5r)
This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of a gift of necklaces (cozcatl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the page prior to the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows Motecuhzoma sitting on a woven seat (icpalli, wearing a diadem, and with his body, arms, and legs covered by the cloak tied on his right shoulder. In front of him are three necklaces, spread out on a blanket. They are being presented to him by one of the men who was at the coast when the Spanish ships arrived. These were gifts that the Spaniards gave to the men receiving them, and the gifts were directed to be given to Motecuhzoma. The contextualizing image shows a total of three men having this audience with the ruler. All three are clad in cloaks, some with shading that gives them a three-dimensionality, which shows European artistic influence. The scene appears inside a double rectangle.
Stephanie Wood
Until now (February 2026), necklaces appearing in the hieroglyphs in this digital collection are all made by Indigenous people. So, these gift necklaces from the Spaniards are new. But it is interesting how both cultures appreciated necklaces and made them in a similar way, even if the beads might have had different origins. Besides having precious stones, Nahua necklaces could have bells, flowers, maize cobs, real or sculpted heads, and a real or sculpted heart pendant. See a few examples below.
Stephanie Wood
cozcatl
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
collares, cuentas, regalos, audiencia, Montezuma, Spanish imperialism, European Imperialism, maritime, navío, navíos, barco, barcos
These necklaces are on display in the history museum in Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City. These are Indigenous-made necklaces, not the kind the Spanish invaders gifted to Motecuhzoma. But both cultures had a similar concept of a necklace. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 29 April 2025.
cozca(tl), a necklace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcatl
el collar
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. 5r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/5r/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.
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.”
