Matlac (MH894v)

Matlac (MH894v)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph plus notation representing the personal name Matlac (“Ten”) shows two ways of rendering the number ten. One consists of a horizontal line running along below–and connecting–ten short vertical lines. The other is a diamond shape, which is a sign for the number ten that was especially known for Huexotzinco manuscripts.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

It is unusual to have two forms of notation used together, but perhaps the tlacuilo felt it necessary, given that just a diamond shape might be misunderstood standing alone. This may have been a calendrical name at one time, and it lost the companion day name. Macuil is a similar name that may have experienced the same reduction. Calendrical names were being discouraged by the colonial clergy. But perhaps some forgetting of the use of the calendar was in operation by this time, forty years after the Spanish invasion and seizure of power.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
numbers
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Numbers, Math
Religion (Christian)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diamond shape(s)
frontal view
Keywords: 

números, diez, diamantes, unos, notaciones, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

matlac(tli), ten, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matlactli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Diez

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 894v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=861&st=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
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Matlactli (MH553v)

matlactli pesos (Chav1)

matlactli (T1871:1)

matlactli tlaca (CST44)