Nahui Xochitzin (CQ)

Nahui Xochitzin (CQ)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph-plus-notation stands for the personal name Nahui Xochitzin, which is the reverential form for Nahui Xochitl (Four Flower). This is a day sign in the 260-day divinatory calendar, called the tonalpohualli in Nahuatl. Both Nahuas and Mixtecs included calendrics in their religious views of the cosmos.

The notation for four appears at the top of the glyph in the form of four circles drawn in ink and filled in with colorants, red, yellow, yellow, and red. The flower has three predominant petals in red and a white, tripartite sepal at the base of the flower.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Nahui Xochitzin is a name from the calendar, suggesting that the man who bore the name (see the contextualizing image) was born on that day. The reverential ending to the name (-tzin) fits with the appearance of the man, who sits on a jaguar skin-covered throne (icpalli) and wears the cape called a tilmatli. Often, there are historical and religious associations with certain names. Nahui Xochitl appears in the Codex Chimalpopoca in association with a calamitous time of flood and destruction. Sebastián van Doesburg (see Bibliography) discusses Four Flower Xochitzin as married to a woman named Tepetl (Pedernal) and governing Tecamachalco (modern-day Puebla) between 1507 and 1520.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

xochitzin

Gloss Normalization:

Xochitzin

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Quetzalecatzin, Codex (CQ)

Date of Manuscript:

covers ruling men and women of Tecamachalco through 1593

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

southern Puebla state

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

numbers

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Flowers

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Numbers, Math

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

red

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

tripartite

vertical, upright

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Other Cultural Influences:

Mixtec

Keywords:

flowers, flores, ones, unos, tlahtoqueh, tlahtoani, numbers, números, días, days, calendarios, calendars, dates, fechas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

nahui, four, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahui
xochi(tl), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
tonalpohual(li), 260-day calendar, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalpohualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cuatro Flor

Image Source:

The Codex Quetzalecatzin, aka Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec, Codex Ehecatepec-Huitziltepec, or Charles Ratton Codex. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017590521/

Image Source, Rights:

The Library of Congress, current custodian of this pictorial Mexican manuscript, hosts a digital version online. It is not copyright protected.

Historical Contextualizing Image: