cozcatl (FCbk9fiiv)

cozcatl (FCbk9fiiv)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a beautiful necklace (cozcatl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a frontal view of a red tie around a large round turquoise disk with a hole in the middle and an orange border on the outer edge. Dangling down from this circular piece are six small yellow (probably gold, teocuitlatl) bells (probably coyolli).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Most of the necklaces such as this that are featured in the Florentine Codex far surpass the quality of the cozcatl found in more common personal name and place glyphs in, for example, the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, as can be seen if a few examples below. In the case of the vulture (cozcacuauh), the necklaces there serve as phonetic indicators, perhaps mainly there primarily to serve that purpose and are not given great detail or color, for the most part.

Added 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)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Metals, Minerals, Mining

Turquoise or Jadeite

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

red

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

border (red, plain, or patterned)

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

tied, bound, or bundled

Keywords:

collares, turquesas, atados, cascabel, cascabeles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cozca(tl), necklace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcatl-0

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el collar

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 9: The Merchants", fol. iiv, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/9/folio/iiv/images/e63f158d-bd... Accessed 26 August 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: