Huitzilihuitl (FCbk8f1r)

Huitzilihuitl (FCbk8f1r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for the personal name Huitzilihuitl (perhaps “Hummingbird Feathers”) shows simply a brown and white hummingbird in profile, flying toward the right. This is the name of a ruler of Tenochtitlan in the fifteenth century.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See the other Huitzilihuitl glyphs below, which have birds that do not always resemble a hummingbird. Some have added feathers, and some do not. It is also interesting that this famous name was given to many children of humble families, such as the tribute payers of the Huexotzinco area.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Vitzilivitl,

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzilihuitl

Gloss 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)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

white/neutral

Keywords:

rulers, gobernadores, gobernantes, colibrí, colibríes, hummingbirds, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitzil(in), hummingbird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzilin
ihui(tl), feather, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ihuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Plumas de Colibrí (nombre de un gobernante)

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. 1r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/1r/images/0 Accessed 21 June 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.”

Orthography:

"v" for u, uh, or hu

intrusive comma

Historical Contextualizing Image: