cuahuitl (Osu13r)

cuahuitl (Osu13r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painting from the Codex Osuna, folio 13 recto (or Image 28), shows a bundle of wood (called cuahuitl in the Nahuatl text) with two horizontal cords or ropes keeping it together. Another Nahuatl term for firewood is cuauhtlatilli, but this term is not found in the text on this folio. We are including this example of iconography to provide for comparisons with hieroglyphs. The pieces of wood are upright, and they are a tan color. They are attached to a man’s back. This is one of twenty men who were tasked with carrying firewood in Tacuba for a Spaniard named Dr. Vasco de Puga (the verb in the Nahuatl text is conmamalia, to carry it for him in that direction).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The manuscript is protesting a lack of payment for this work. The contextualizing image also shows a simplex glyph for the place name, Tlacopan (Tacuba, today).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Osuna, Codex (Osu)
Date of Manuscript: 

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke
Gender (male)
Labor Issues
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
tan
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
tied, bound, or bundled
vertical, upright
profile view
facing right
Keywords: 

leña, fogones, fuegos, cuauhtlatilli, madera, servicio, trabajo, cargar, tamemes, Tlacopan

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

cuahui(tl), wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl-1

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la leña

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights: 

"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." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

cuahuitl (TR28r)

Atle Icuauh (MH602v)

cuahuitl (CST13)