molotl (FCbk11f51v)

molotl (FCbk11f51v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a common house finch (molotl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the Nahuatl text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a bird that is nearly caught in the binding, which results in some distortion of the painting. It is shown in profile, with the body turned toward the viewer’s right, and its head is turned back to the left. It is light brown in color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This digital collection already includes one example of molotl, which features as a simplex glyph in a place name. That one is beautifully and carefully painted, with gray and brown stripes and a red spot on top of the head.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Molotl

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

molotl

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: Birds
Feathers
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

pinzones, pájaro, pájaros, ave, aves

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

molo(tl), a house finch or a white-winged tanager, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el pinzón común

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. 51v Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/51v/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: 
See Also: 

molotl (Mdz23r)