molli (Mdz13r)
This element for molli (sauce) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Mollanco. The "mol" part of the name, which derives from molli, appears here as an apparently round, ceramic bowl (judging by the orange color) with only two legs showing.
Stephanie Wood
The full name for the sauce bowl is molcaxitl). So, the sauce bowl is here simply representing the sauce that would be contained within the bowl, not visible. Or, mol- is here an abbreviation for molcaxitl. In another example, we do see some dots above the bowl, pointing to the contents. Interestingly, all three Mollanco glyphs from the Codex Mendoza included here share the sign for olin (rubber). Two have the tlantli (for the lan element in the place name), and two have the sauce bowl. See below.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
sauces, sauce bowls
mol(li), sauce, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molli
molcaxi(tl), sauce bowl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molcaxitl
sauce bowl
mole, molcajete
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 36 of 188.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
