cuachichictli (FCbk4v71v)

cuachichictli (FCbk4v71v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example features a warrior hairstyle (cuachichictli, a keyword identified by the Digital Florentine Codex team, not a gloss or a reference in the nearby text). It is worn by two men. Their hair is partly shaved off, leaving a stiff ridge crest. (See Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office, 2005, 112.) The men’s clothing consists of a loincloth and a cape; one has a yellow cape and one has a pink cape. They are barefooted, standing on grass. This grounding shows European stylistic influence, as does the shading that gives three-dimensionality. The contextualizing image shows that these two warriors are standing facing two others who have the temillotl hairstyle.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Two items worthy of comparisons appear below. The other example of iconography comes from the Codex Mendoza and shows the cuachichtli hairstyle on a man whose face has been blackened. The other comparison is a glyph for Cuachic (perhaps a warrior with a crest of hair–but his hairstyle appears more similar to the temillotl.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Other Cultural Influences: 
Keywords: 

peinado, cabello, pelos, guerreros, guerra

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

cuachichic(tli), the hairstyle of the shorn one(s), the cuachic warriors, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuachichictli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

un guerrero esquilado

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 4: The Soothsayers", fol. 71v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/4/folio/71v/images/c272547c-06... Accessed 27 June 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: