cuauhcihuatl (FCbk10f36v)

cuauhcihuatl (FCbk10f36v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a glyph-like rendering of a mature woman (cuauhcihuatl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a frontal view of a standing woman. She wears a white cotton tunic (huipilli) and a long skirt (cueitl). Showing Western artistic influence, the clothing is shaded for three-dimensionality. The head of this woman is actually a profile view of an eagle’s (cuauhtli) head, facing the viewer’s right. This eagle-woman carries a large piece of wood (cuahuitl) in her right hand. This seems to serve as a phonetic complement to the cuauh- (eagle) part of the term. It can also contribute semantically, of course, if she is a resolute woman firm of heart (yollotetl, a term that arises earlier in the text relating to this type of woman).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

A glyph for the personal name Valiente (“Brave”) actually shows the head of a woman and the head of an eagle, which suggests the man’s name may originally have been Cuauhcihuatl. See below. Many men’s names in this collection have a female dimension, a phenomenon worthy of further study for what it might reveal about gender ideology. Also below is the glyph for yollotetl that was employed earlier in the manuscript to describe the firm heart of the cuauhcihuatl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quauhcioatl

Gloss Normalization:

cuauhcihuatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Emotions

Gender (female)

Personality, Behavior

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

mujeres, mujer resuelta, obstinada, firme de corazón

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhcihua(tl), a mature woman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhcihuatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la mujer madura

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 10: The People", fol. 36v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/36v/images/0 Accessed 10 September 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.”

Orthography:

"o" for u, uh, or hu

"q" for c

dropped "h"

Historical Contextualizing Image: