Itzcuin (BMapL79)

Itzcuin (BMapL79)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Itzcuin (“Dog”) shows the head of a dog in profile, looking left toward the head of the man whose name this is. Itzcuintli is a day name from the 260-day religious divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli. Such a day name would have had a companion number from 1 to 13. Perhaps that part of the tradition was fading away, or perhaps there was an effort to disguise the continuing use of the sacred calendar by dropping the numbers.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

This glyph is not glossed; the decipherment of the glyph comes from Gordon Whittaker’s contribution to the study by Mary E. Miller and Barbara E. Mundy (2012).

Source Manuscript: 
Beinecke Map (BMap)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City or the Valley of Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
fading tradition, or an effort to disguise?
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Misc.
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
Keywords: 

perros, calendarios, tonalpohualli, nombres de días, nombres de hombres

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

itzcuin(tli), dog, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itzcuintli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Perro

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Beinecke Map/Codex Reese, section 8, no. 79 in the Whittaker study (published in the Miller/Mundy book, 2012), and see the original at: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3600017

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Itzcuin (MH634r)

Itzcuintli (MH519v)

Macuilitzcuin (MH622r)