ihicahuaca (FCbk11f55r)

ihicahuaca (FCbk11f55r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a song bird that can chirp or warble (the verb ihicahuaca), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs of words and songs. The term selected for this example comes from our Online Nahuatl Dictionary. There is no gloss, per se, and this term is not found in the text surrounding the image. This iconographic example involves a cuitlacochin bird emitting a large, turquoise blue speech scroll with a red flower attached to it. The flower has a green base, a stem, and a single leaf. The companion text praises this bird as a huel cuicani (fine singer).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Other relevant vocabulary considered for this particular record includes the term tzatzatziliztli (bird song) and tlatolli (tlahtolli, with the glottal stop). The rationale for the latter comes from the previous folio, where the song of the huilotl (folio 54v) is referred to in the Nahuatl text as “itlatol” (literally, its word). The text also quotes the specific sound of its song (“uilo-o-o”). This collection also includes elaborate speech or song scrolls, most of which are emitted by humans. For more examples, used the Advanced Search, Cultural Content, for “speech” or “scrolls.”

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

verb

visual sound

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Flowers

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition, Languages

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

volute(s)

Keywords:

pirar, gorjear, chirriar, trinar, cantar trinando, songbird, pájaro cantor, pájaros, ave, aves, volutas, flores

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ihicahuaca, to warble or chirp (referring to a bird), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ihicahuaca
ihiyo(tl), breath, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ihiyotl
cuicani, a singer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuicani
huel, good, fine, truly, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huel
cuitlacochin, a curve-billed thrasher, a bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlacochin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

un buen cantor

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 55r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/55r/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: