malinalli (Mdz39r)

malinalli (Mdz39r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This white, green, and yellow painting of the element malinalli (twisted grass) has been carved from the compound place name glyph Malinaltepec (see below). The twisted grass here is on the top of a white skull. It is four twisted bits of grass, shown in two tones of green with yellow tips.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Death, decay, decomposition

Mouth/Beak Open

Plants, Flora

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (dark)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

hierbas torcidas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

malinal(li), tall grass or twisted grass, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/malinalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

las hierbas torcidas

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 39 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 88 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)