malacatl (FCbk6f170v)

malacatl (FCbk6f170v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example is a simple black-line drawing featuring a spindle (malacatl). It is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a vertical stick (probably wooden), a shaft that is tapered at both ends. Toward the bottom is a whorl. Coming off the top and descending on the right is a fluffy clump of fibers of cotton or wool, sometimes called a roving in English. This was one of five items that were given to a baby girl at the time of her baptism, according to the companion text.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The two examples of spindles, below, from the Codex Mendoza also have the roving fluff. One has a red whorl. The two from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco both have thread or yarn wrapped around the shaft just above the whorl. Spindles were strongly gendered as items associated with the lives of girls and women. However, one of the examples below (Malaca) is a personal name that was borne by a man. Also, the spindle from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 504 verso, was a symbol of the occupation of a man.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (female)

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

vertical, upright

Keywords:

textiles, huso, husos, hilo, girar

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

malaca(tl), a spindle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/malacatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el huso

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy", fol. 170v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/6/folio/170v/images/0. Accessed 7 July 2025.

Image Source, Rights:

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: