nochtli (Mdz18r)

nochtli (Mdz18r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the cactus fruit, nochtli, double sofr the place name Xoconochco. Nochtli refers to the fruit from the flower that grows on the top of the prickly pear cactus. As in mamy examples, a great deal of the cactus shows, not just the fruit at the top, presumably to give a clear indication of the type of fruit involved. The fruit in this case has a green bulb shape with a yellow and red flower on top. The cactus is a two-tone green with lots of thorns, which are red at the base and white at the tip. Red and white thorns are somewhat reminiscent of the red and white flint knives (tecpatl), shown below, right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

cactus fruits, tunas

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 18 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 46 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

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).