matlatl (FCbk11f61v)

matlatl (FCbk11f61v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring the use of nets (matlatl) to catch birds, 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. The text uses the conjugated verb, matlahuilo, which Anderson and Dibble translate as “they are netted.” This example shows a hunter (aamini or ahamini), a man in a profile view, facing right, wearing a loincloth, wading in water amid various waterfowl, and grasping one of three visible poles (tlacotl) that lift nets up into the air for the purpose of catching birds. The nets have caught three birds (tototl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Nahuatl hieroglyphs and other iconographic examples show much smaller nets, as a rule, for the purpose of catching fish. But here, the nets are large, and they are suspended in the air.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

matlavilo

Gloss/Text Normalization:

matlahuilo

Gloss/Text 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:

Animals: Misc.

Marine, Maritime, Lacustrine

Rope, cord, string

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

checked, cross-hatched, or mesh

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

redes, pájaro, ave, aves, caza, cazar, teana, to capture

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

matla(tl), a net, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matlatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la red (para cazar pájaros)

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. 61v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/61v/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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: