Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina (FCbk8f2v)

Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina (FCbk8f2v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful simplex glyph stands for the personal name of a ruler of Tenochtitlan, Motecuhzoma (the second ruler to hold the name and meaning possibly “The Lord Who Shows Himself Angry”). It shows a turquoise blue diadem (probably a copilli) in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. The tie at the back is red, perhaps cloth, given the horizontal lines at the bottom of the ties, resembling loincloths. Below the diadem, and floating in space, is an ornament also associated with this man. It may be a lip plug.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

A somewhat smaller ornament (possibly also a lip plug) appears in the glyph for Motecuhzoma in the Codex Mendoza (f. 15v). This glyph may prove to be a compound if the features aside from the diadem (which stands for tecuhtli, lord) contribute either logographically or phonetically to the name.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

motecuçoma

Gloss Normalization:

Motecuhzoma

Gloss 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)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

tied, bound, or bundled

Keywords:

emperors, empires, rulers, emperador, emperadores, emperadores, diademas, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, labrets, enchufes, tapones, labios, bezotes, adornos labiales, jewelry, jollas, lip plugs, lip-plugs, teuctli, nombres de hombres, nombres famosos, personas famosas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Motecuhzoma, the name of two rulers of Tenochtitlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Motecuhzoma
tecuh(tli), lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuhtli
zoma, to frown in anger, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zoma

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, El Señor Que Se Muestra Enojado (nombre de un emperador)

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 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 2v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. Accessed 20 June 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: