Itzcuin (Verg22r)

Itzcuin (short for itzcuintli) is a day name in the tonalpohualli 260-day calendar. It is popular in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, where it is also apocopated, dropping the final absolutive ending. In some hieroglyphs the itzcuintli’s teeth are showing, and sometimes its tongue protrudes. Because calendrical names originally also carried a companion number, names such as Ce Itzcuin can be found (below). But the number component of the name seems to have dropped away in this case. This may represent an effort to disguise the continued use of the ancient calendar. Serious events in Tetzcoco in 1539 may have made Nahua tlacuilos more cautious when writing and painting about aspects of their faith. See Patricia Lopes Don for information about the Inquisition case against don Carlos Ometochtli, a Chichimecatecuhtli executed in late 1539, in Bonfires of Culture, 2010. Bradley Benton (The Lords of Tetzcoco, 2017, 46) also writes that the case “demonstrates that blatant disregard for Christianity had serious consequences.”