Ixtlamati (MH624r)

Ixtlamati (MH624r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Ixtlamati ("A Wise Person") is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph is a human eye (ixtli) drawn in a way fairly close to the pre-contact starry-eye style. It is a phonetic indicator that the name starts with Ix-, but it also ties in semantically to the kind of knowledge the wise person has--gained from experiencing things with his own eyes.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

According to March Thouvenot, imati (related to ixtlamati) relates to an empirical knowledge gained through experience by witnessing things with one's eyes, mati makes reference to an internal, abstract being that has the capacity to think. [See his article: "Imágenes y escritura entre los Nahuas del inicio del XVI," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 41 (2010), 182. My rough translation to English.]

This glyph is nearly identical to one that is glossed Ixtlamati (see below). This underscores the relationship between the puzzling Tlamao/Tlamauh glyphs and the meaning of ixtlamati or tlamati, as opposed to tlamauhtli. Of course, the European assessment of trickery with tlamauh is not terribly far from the European association between tlamauhtli and crazed. In all cases, the reader must keep in mind filters and biases.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

agustin
yxtlamati

Gloss Normalization:

Agustín Ixtlamati

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

ix syllable (from ixtli)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Education, Knowledge, Wisdom

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle (half)

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

Keywords:

eyes, ojos, conocimiento, knowledge, visión, wisdom, sabiduría, Tlamao, tlamauh

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ixtlamati, a wise man, one who uses reason and has experience, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtlamati
tlamati, to know something, or to know magic/trickery, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamati
tlamauh, wise one, knowledgeable person, or possibly sorcerer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamauh
tlamauh(tli), crazed, berzerk, or infected, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamauhtli
ix(tli), eye, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

El Sabio

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 624r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=330st=image.

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).

Orthography:

"y" for i

Historical Contextualizing Image: