escribano Caxtiltecatl (FCbk12fir)
This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of Spanish notary (escribano Caxtiltecatl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with any related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes in part from the obvious job the man is doing writing things down, plus the keywording near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a ¾ view of a Spaniard seated on a box or rock, facing toward the viewer’s left. He wears a belted tunic that reaches below his knees. He also wears a helmet. Across his lap is a wide piece of paper held tight by his left hand. In his right hand he holds a writing implement, and he is apparently in the act of writing. The marks on the paper are scribbles that are meant to convey alphabetic writing.
Stephanie Wood
Because the Spanish colonizers would teach the Nahua tlacuilo to write with the Roman alphabet and may have influenced how he would draw people writing, this image could be interesting for comparing with hieroglyphs such as the personal name Amatlacuilol. Types of writing and types of writing implements are also prevalent in this collection.
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
notaries, escribanos, secretario, secretarios, escribir, papel, pluma
escribano, notary, clerk, scribe, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/escribano
Caxtiltecatl, a Spaniard, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/caxtiltecatl
el escribano español
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. ir, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/ir/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.
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.”
