Huitzilihuitl (TR30r)

Huitzilihuitl (TR30r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the personal name Huitzilihuitl includes the head of which is apparently meant to be a hummingbird (huitzilin), despite having a hooked beak. (Hummingbird glyphs show a long, pointed beak.) It is shown in profile looking toward the viewer's right. The feathers (ihuitl) at the back of its head are spiky, and around the perimeter of its head are five, small, white, round feathers, possibly down feathers. Its eye is white, as though open. The overall effect of the name is Hummingbird-Feathers.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Huitzilihuitl was the name of the second ruler of Tenochtitlan. The dates of his rule are inconsisted across various records. According to Chimalpahin, his rule spanned from 1390 to 1415. The Codex Aubin gives 1396 to 1417, and the Codex Chimalpopoca gives 1403 to 1417.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)

Date of Manuscript:

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Feathers

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

outward (from inside out)

Keywords:

rulers, gobernantes, colibríes, hummingbirds, feathers, plumas

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:

Las Plumas del Colibrí

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 30 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f85.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights:

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: