ilhuicatl (FCbk6f215r)
This iconographic example, featuring a black-line drawing of the sky (ilhuicatl) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex and the companion Nahuatl text. This example shows the sky as a round shape in the air. It is filled with eleven Europea-type stars. A wedge is missing on the lower side of the circle. It is darker up at the top and lighter down below. From this wedge fall eleven small pointy objects (perhaps light rays, as seen in Tonal MH818r, below). The top of the circle is shaded, perhaps intending a three-dimensionality. Coming from behind the circle and embracing it is a hand with part of its arm. The arm is wearing a sleeve with folds and shading that also give it a three-dimensionality.
Stephanie Wood
Perhaps the arm represents a European Christian and possibly a divine protective gesture, such as “the hand of God,” which was a theme that spanned centuries in Europe. See other ways of drawing and painting skies, below. They are rectangular, U-shaped, and circular. They can be painted turquoise with a yellow border. The stars can be red and white shapes like human eyes (particularly in the night skies), white circular objects, or white pointed stars (the latter showing European influence).
Stephanie Wood
inilvicatl
in ilhuicatl
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
estrellas, círculos, ojos, puntiagudos
ilhuica(tl), the celestial realm, heaven, sky, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ilhuicatl
el cielo
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy", fol. 215r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/6/folio/215r/images/0 Accessed 12 July 2025.
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.”
