Mixcoatlailotlac (Mdz68r)

Mixcoatlailotlac (Mdz68r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph represents a personal name and title that combines Mixcoatl (Cloud Serpent) with the title Tlailotlac. The principal feature is reminiscent of a cuauhpilolli, and around that are footprints. The footprints are black, the eagle feather device is brown and tan with white down feathers. The footprints show a path (perhaps for a dancer?) around the cuauhpilolli.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The footprints could stand for a verb, such as temo or pano (see below), or a locative (e.g. pan). Xo is another phonetic element that a foot will conjure up. But none of these interpretations seem to fit this visual. Any assessment about the presence of possible phonetic elements in this compound await further analysis. So, for the time being, the combination seems semantic and fully logographic.

Footprint glyphs have a wide range of translations. In this collection, so far, we can attest to yauh, xo, pano, -pan, paina, temo, nemi, quetza, otli, iyaquic hualiloti, huallauh, tetepotztoca, totoco, -tihui, and the vowel "o." Other research (Herrera et al, 2005, 64) points to additional terms, including: choloa, tlaloa, totoyoa, eco, aci, quiza, maxalihui, centlacxitl, and xocpalli.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

title/office

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

black

brown

gray

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Keywords:

feet, pies, foot, huellas, footprints, feathered device, feathers, plumas, nubes, serpientes, oficios, gobierno indígena, nombres de hombres, títulos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Mixcoatl, a divine force, "Cloud Serpent," https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mixcoatl
mixcoacuauhtli, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mixcoacuauhtli
Tlailotlac, a high magistrate, an ethnicity, or a name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlailotlac

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Nubes-Serpiente (y un título, Tlailotlac)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 68 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., Image 146 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)

Historical Contextualizing Image: