ichcatl (FCbk12fir)

ichcatl (FCbk12fir)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of sheep (ichcatl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows two sheep, one ram and one ewe. They are shown in profile, facing left. They both have thick woolen coats.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Animals that crossed the Atlantic Ocean multiplied fairly quickly over the sixteenth century, eating and trampling Indigenous cornfields, and generally causing havoc. Still they appear fairly rarely in this digital collection. See examples of simplex hieroglyphs from the Códice Sierra-Texupan, below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Sheep/Goats

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ichca(tl), a sheep or its wool, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ichcatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

las ovejas

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 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. ir, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/ir/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.

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: