ilhuicatl (TR42r)

ilhuicatl (TR42r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex noun represents the sky or heavens (ilhuicatl). It is nearly a half circle, with the diameter across the upper side. The curving part has a golden or yellow border. The rest of the shape is filled in with a turquoise blue and seven white stars of the type that show European influence, with eight points.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The sky band, as depicted in the Codex Mendoza, shows a horizontal rectangle with various layers, which do not appear in this example here. The Mendoza example does have a turquoise blue layer (at the top) with white circles that represent stars.

The Florentine Codex conveys how the heavens or sky could be thought of as "a blue gourd bowl filled with popcorn." See: Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 237.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çielo

Gloss Normalization: 

cielo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)
Date of Manuscript: 

1578

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Celestial Phenomena
Corn, Maize
Religion (Indigenous Christianity)
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
frontal view
pointed (see also spiky)
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

skies, cielos, heavens, stars, estrellas

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

ilhuicac, heaven, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ilhuicac

Image Source: 

The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is hosted on line by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f109.item. We have taken this detail shot from the indicated folio.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is not copyright protected, but please cite Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France or cite this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020–present).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

ilhuicatl (Mdz7v)