Motelchiuh (FCbk8f4v)

Motelchiuh (FCbk8f4v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound glyph of the personal name Motelchiuh (perhaps “He Belittled Himself”) is also the name of a famous ruler. The glyph shows a hand, reaching from the left, presenting a stone (tetl). The stone has the typical curling ends. It is painted brown. Perhaps the apparent presentation of the stone implies that “this is for you,” i.e., “your” (mo-). If so, then the hand and the stone are phonetic indicators for the Motel- start to the name. The remainder (-chiuh) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

We have one glyph for the personal name Motelchihui, but one wonders whether it should be Motelchiuh, from the verb motelchihua, to belittle oneself, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/motelchihua

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

motelchiuh

Gloss Normalization: 

Motelchiuh

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
tan
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
left to right
Keywords: 

mano, manos, piedra, piedras, dar, su, tu, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

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

mo- (possessive pronoun), your, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mo
te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
Motelchiuh, a ruler of Tenochtitlan in the sixteenth century, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/motelchiuh

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

(nombre de un gobernante)

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 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy", fol. 168v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/4v/images/45b33116-7f1... 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Motelchihui (MH729r)