Itzcoatl (Azca23)
This is a black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the ruler’s name Itzcoatl (also seen in the reverential, Itzcoatzin), which might be translated as “Obsidian Serpent” or “Knife-Serpent.” It shows an undulating serpent in profile, facing the viewer’s right. Its eye is closed, which seems to mirror the deceased state of the person who has this name. Coming off the serpent’s body are eleven points of arrows, eight above and three below.
Stephanie Wood
We are calling this a glyph even lacking a gloss, being certain of its interpretation when based upon comparisons with other compound glyphs of this name. Normally, what are called iconographic examples in this digital collection are so labelled due to the lack of a confirming gloss. However, ideally, comparisons with glossed glyphs will help bear out the interpretations. Note the examples of Itzcoatl, below. This compound glyph is much simpler than the other Itzcoatl glyph of this same page. The contextualizing image shows a shrouded corpse, conveying that the ruler was deceased at that time.
Stephanie Wood
post-1550, possibly from the early seventeenth century.
Jeff Haskett-Wood
rulers, gobernantes, Mexica, obsidiana, piedras, navajas, cuchillos, serpientes, culebras, víboras, serpents, snakes, cohuatl, knives, flints, points, arrows, puntas, nombres de hombres, nombres de gobernantes, ondulante
Itzcoatl, a ruler of Tenochtitlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itzcoatl
itz(tli), obsidian blade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itztli
coa(tl), snake or serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
Serpiente de Obsidiana, o Navaja-Culebra
Stephanie Wood
The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=23&st=image
The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
