icuilolli (MH603r)

icuilolli (MH603r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of a rectangle with a spiraling line inside it is shared here as an "element" for the noun icuilolli (a painting). It has been carved from the compound glyph for Xalicuilol, removing the dots that represent the sand. Given that this name refers to a landscape feature, the meaning of icuilolli here could be an intervention in the earth that resembles a design. Or perhaps it is a painting of a sandy parcel, a land document.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Marc Thouvenot identifies the verb icuiloa (or ihcuiloa, with the glottal stop), which means to paint, write, or print, as having a root of -cuil-. He notes how it also appears in tlacuiloliztli (writing), tlacuilo (writer), and cuicuiltic (mottled). He goes on to show various uses of icuiloa that take it beyond the simple definitions just given, resulting in something like the action of creating a design (e.g., on leather, ceramics, sculpture, or in textiles). It can also be something like the action of decorating (e.g., to put a flower on a cup of atole). He associates icuiloa and tlacuilolli with "cultural artifacts," such as arts and crafts or examples of writing and painting, but cuicuiltic with effects created by "nature." This short summary barely does his article justice; it is worth reading the entire piece. How Thouvenot's study might connect with the concept of bent or curved mentioned by Prem (1974: 555, 682) raises an interesting question. Perhaps the bent or curved lines of writing, painting, carving, embroidery, and so on, fall with in the realm of expressions of -cuil-. See
Marc Thouvenot, "Imágenes y escritura entre los nahuas del inicio del XVI," Estudios de Cultural Náhuatl 41 (2010).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Keywords: 

lands, tierras, títulos, papeles, papers, documents, manuscripts, paintings, pinturas, escribir, pintar, write, paint

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

icuilol(li), a piece of writing or a design (here, carved in the earth?), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icuilolli

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 603r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=287&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).