Cuilol (MH520r)

Cuilol (MH520r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuilol ("A Painting" or "Painter") attested here as a man's name, is a horizontal rectangular box with a double line around the outside and a division across the middle. In each half of the box there is a large flower-like or rosette shape with a central circle, resulting in something like a pair of quincunxes. If lines were drawn connecting the four petals in each (symmetrical) flower, the result would be an X-shape. This sign seems to represent the noun (i)cuilolli, which is somewhat rare in the vocabularies. In this case the beginning i- (which seems to be optional, just as with the verb icuiloa, to write or paint) has dropped away.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The iconographic example of tlacuiloliztli (the act of writing or painting) from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, folio 30 recto (below), has one of its two boxes with a similar flower shape. The same flower, standing for icuiloa (according to Gordon Whittaker, personal communication), appears on the pre-contact stone carving (below).

Penny C. Morrill translates the name "Cuillol" as "Painter" in her book, The Casa del Deán (2014, 89).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

antonio cuillol

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Cuilol

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

writing, painting, escrituras, pinturas, tlacuilolli

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

This stone carving of what appears to be a pair of glyphs that refer to writing and painting is located in the Museo de Escultura Mexica at the archaeological site of Santa Cecilia Acatitlan (juris. Tlalnepantla, Mexico City). This visual diphrasism repeats around what was a cuauhxicalli (container for hearts) that was repurposed as a baptismal font, according to the interpretation in the museum. The flower on the left is much like the flowers in the two squares in the glyph above. Photo by Stephanie Wood, 13 August 2023.

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

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 520r, World Digital Library.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=119&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: