huehuetl (FCbk8f30r)

huehuetl (FCbk8f30r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a standing wooden drum (huehuetl) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a large, cylindrical drum with horizontal stripes in blue, red, and brown. The top is an off-white, probably comprising a hide that was stretched tight to cover the top opening. The legs of the drum have a diagnostic shape that somewhat resembles lightning strikes.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See some other examples of the huehuetl, below. Most show that the animal skin was struck with the hands, but one example shows a stick.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Music, Song, Dance

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

striped

triangular

Keywords:

música, danza, danzas, bailar, tocar, tambor, tambores, madera

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huehue(tl), a cylindrical wooden drum covered with animal skin,
https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehuetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el huehuete, el tambor

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 30r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/30r/images/0 Accessed 10 August 2025.

Image Source, Rights:

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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: