Cuicamaxochitl (MH517v)

Cuicamaxochitl (MH517v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the personal name Cuicamaxochitl (here, attested as male) shows a hand [ma(itl)] holding a flower (xochitl) fan that was apparently used while singing (cuica)) and dancing. The hand is painted a flesh tone. and the fan (shown in a frontal view but slightly cut off because the page is eroded) has some red coloring (really a pinkish or purple, but probably intending red). The flowers on the fan are arranged in concentric circles, emanating out for the center. It is the central circle that has the red coloring. A probably wooden stick runs partly up the middle of the fan, and the hand grabs onto this stick. The song (Cuica-) part of the name is not shown visually, but perhaps this fan was held while singing and dancing.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This fan may or may not be the ehecacehuaztli fan that the divine force of the wind carries in the Tonalamatl de los Pochtecas, a codex of Mixteca-Puebla origin (formerly called the Codex Fejervary-Mayer). See Mexicolore for a reproduction of the indicated page. If this fan is not the same, it has a similar construction and shape.

Fans with a circular shape mounted on a stick could also be made of feathers. The famous fan in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna, is one such beauty. Red is the color of the central ring on this fan, too.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juao cuicamaxochitl

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Cuicamaxochitl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript (incl coverage): 

1560

Creator's Location (place, incl. coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Cultural Content (subjects): 
Flowers
Music, Song, Dance
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Religion (Indigenous)
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood and Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
half circle
curving, curvy, curved
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

cuica, to sing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuica
maxochi(tl), hand-held flowers, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maxochitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Canción-Albanico de Flores

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 517v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=114&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Quetzalhuacan (MH627r)