Matlalcueye (FCbk11f232v)

Matlalcueye (FCbk11f232v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a lack-line sketch of a mountain near Tlaxcala called Matlalcueye, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a mountain that looks like a stack of large rocks or monoliths. In the foreground are six trees and a low rolling landscape with grasses. While the name refers to a blue color (matlalin), this drawing has no added color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Perhaps the blocky rocks looked like skirts to the person who originally named the mountain, given how the name refers to a woman’s blue skirts. See our.Online Nahuatl Dictionary which also quotes Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza’s announcement about a law that allowed the Spaniards to cut down the trees on the mountain. The personification and gendering of mountains is not unusual.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Matlalquaie

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Matlalcueye

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Color names
Gender (male)
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
shading and parallel line hatching
three-dimensionality
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

montañas, mujeres, faldas, color, colores, azul

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

Matlalcueye, a volcano near Tlaxcala, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Matlalcueye

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la montaña, Ella Que “Tiene Faldas Azules”

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 232v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/232v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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: 
See Also: 

Popocatepetl (FCbk11f232v)