fiscal (Osu5v)

This painting of a Spanish colonial legal official, a fiscal, provides an iconographic example of the term from Spanish that was taken into Nahuatl, both for describing Spanish officials and for use in referring to a local, Indigenous municipal officer. It comes from the Codex Osuna, folio 5 verso (or Image 13). In this example, the person pictured is a Spanish official, and he is also a “doctor,” as described in the Spanish-text. He points with both index fingers. He has no staff or weapon, in contrast with some others. But like the other doctors and oidores, he sits in the throne-like curule chair (probably wooden), and he speaks, evidenced by the speech scroll emerging from his mouth. The speech scroll here, as on other pages, starts out reddish and then changes abruptly to a light turquoise blue on the part that curls under. He wears a full suit of clothing, a hat and a beard. The Nahuatl gloss explains that he is the “late Maldonado” and “he died.” Given the Nahuatl gloss on this figure, his representation seems very glyph-like.