etl (FCbk10f132r)
This iconographic example, featuring a bean plant (etl), 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 on the page preceding this image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a frontal view of a standing bean plant with leaves, two clusters of three bean pods, and visible roots (painted reddish-orange). At the top of the plant are two curling or spiraling tendrils that would help the vine cling and climb.
Stephanie Wood
Beans rarely appear in Nahuatl hieroglyphs in plant form, but rather as black beans that are eaten or that serve as playing pieces in the game called patolli. The term etl can also play a phonetic role for the vowel “e.”
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
frijoles, plantas, comida
e(tl), bean(s), or a bean plant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/etl
la planta del frijol
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 10: The People", fol. 132r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/132r/images/0 Accessed 2 October 2025.
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.”
