cuauhtlatolo (FCbk9f2r)

cuauhtlatolo (FCbk9f2r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound hieroglyph referring to military government (cuauhtlatolo) is attested in the text and its associated image in the Digital Florentine Codex. This example shows a ¾ view of a brown standing eagle (cuauhtli) with its wings raised. It stands on what may be a rounded peak or mound, painted green. Its visible eye is open, as is its beak. From its beak emerge three speech scrolls in yellow, red, and green. These volutes refer to words (tlatolli), even if an eagle does not speak actual words.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Eagle knights or warriors were an elite group, highly valued. So, the reference here to eagles is a reference to things “military” (if the term is even appropriate), and having the word, the voice, is a reference to power and rulership. So, this compound is a metaphor for military governance. This collection does include examples of eagles speaking, which might relate to this metaphor.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

visual sound

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Politics, Power, Governance

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition, Languages

War or Conflict

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

volute(s)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

right to left

Keywords:

gobiernos, gobernante, gobernantes, gobernadores, gobernadores, militares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhtlatolo, military government, ¾ view https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtlatolo
cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli
tlatol(li), word(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatolli
-yo(tl), having the quality of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el gobierno militar

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. 2r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/9/folio/2r/images/0 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.”

Orthography:

"q" for c

Historical Contextualizing Image: