Huitzilhuacan (MH649v)

Huitzilhuacan (MH649v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful painting of the simplex glyph for the place name Huitzilhuacan shows a large bird in black and white, in profile, facing toward the viewer's left. It is standing on and drawing nectar from a large pink blossom on a plant with two brown stems and some green leaves.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

huizilhuacan ba
rrio

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzilhuacan, barrio

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Religion (Indigenous)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

Keywords:

pájaros, colibrí, colibries, flores, barrios, nombres de lugares, topónimos

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

This detail of a hummingbird on a flower comes from the painting by Manuel Ocaranza, “El amor del colibríes” (1868), which is on show at the Museo Nacional del Arte, Mexico City. It is interesting that most glyphs of hummingbirds do not show them sitting on or sucking flowers. Photo by S. Wood, 4 May 2025.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitzil(in), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilin
-hua, singular possessor suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can, locative suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Donde Tienen Colibries

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 649v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=381&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: