mazatl (FCbk11f15v)

mazatl (FCbk11f15v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a deer (mazatl), 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 profile of deer in the countryside, walking toward the viewer’s right. It has antlers and a mottled gray coat. Its belly is white. The use of grounding shows European artistic influence on the Nahua painter.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The mazatl was a day name in the 260-day religious divinatory calendar called the tonalpohualli (count of the days), and so it appears as a personal name in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco and other manuscripts. The deer is often depicted by a head only, and it typically shows antlers. The presentation of antlers in the Codex Mendoza is more stylized; a deer shown in the DFC, Book 11, Folio 16r (not yet in this collection), has antlers more like those in the Codex Mendoza. When mazatl is shown as a date in the calendar, it is accompanied by a number from one to thirteen.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Maçatl

Gloss Normalization:

mazatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

Syntax:

noun(s)

visual movement

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Misc.

Movement

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

spotted or mottled

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

ciervos, animales, cuernos, asta, astas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

maza(tl), deer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mazatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el ciervo

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. 15v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/15v/images/0 Accessed 7 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.”

Orthography:

"ç" for z or tz

Historical Contextualizing Image: