Itzcuintli (MH519v)

Itzcuintli (MH519v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of a simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph for the personal name Itzcuin shows the head of a dog (itzcuintli) in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. His one visible eye is open, his ears are standing up, and his mouth is open enough to reveal teeth. His nose curls a little bit. His coat does not have coloring or texturing, it is just left neutral.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Itzcuintli is a day sign in the tonalpohualli, the 260-day divinatory calendar, and calendrics played a significant role in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos. Originally, this calendrical name would be accompanied by a number from 1 to 13, but the use of numbers was either fading away or being suppressed. Colonial clergy were working to stop Nahuas from consulting the ancestral calendar for naming their children. Another probable issue from the point of view of the clergy was that an animal spirit (nahualli) could take the shape of a dog. This was a surviving belief in stories collected by twentieth-century ethnography, such as Los cuentos en náhuatl de Doña Luz Jiménez, recop. Fernando Horcasitas and Sarah O. de Ford (México, UNAM, 1979), 32–33.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

a^ol ytzcui~

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Alonso Itzcuintli

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Dogs

Mouth/Beak Open

Religion (Indigenous)

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Colors:

white/neutral

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes:

This print of “Xocoitzcuintle” (2025) is an example of Mexican artists’ continuing interest in Indigenous Mexican dogs. Armadillo Gráfico print workshop, Jalatlaco, Oaxaca. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 23 January 2026.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

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

Image Source:

https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=118&st=image&r=-0.173,...

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: