mixtli (FCbk7f12r)
This iconographic example, featuring clouds (mixtli) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the companion text in the Digital Florentine Codex. This example shows a horizontal rectangle with a double border. Inside the rectangle are about four horizontal rows of swirling clouds, white with gray and purple shading for three-dimensionality. European artistic influence seems strong here. Dark gray mountains appear below the clouds, although the tops of the mountains are obscured by the clouds. Some Nahuas think of clouds as originating from mountains, as the Sandstroms’ research reveals (Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain, 2023).
Stephanie Wood
The shapes and colors of clouds will vary considerably in Nahuatl hieroglyphs. The earlier ones, in the Codex Mendoza, are painted a turquoise blue, like water, and they swirl. The face of the divine force of rain (Tlaloc), has swirling cloud shapes on his face. Cloud Serpent glyphs have clusters of small white clouds, as a rule. Some rain clouds appear as groups of small gray and white clouds. See examples below. The text that we are using as a gloss here comes from the start of the section on clouds, on folio 10 verso. On that page, the term is broken into two parts; we have reunited them digitally.
Stephanie Wood
in mistli
in mixtli
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
nube, ondulado, montañas
mix(tli), clouds, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mixtli
los nubes
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 7: The Sun, Moon and Stars", fol. 12r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/7/folio/12r/images/0 Accessed 15 July 2025.
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.”
