peyotl (FCbk11f142v)
This iconographic example, featuring peyote (peyotl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a Nahua man whose way of dressing shows European influence. He has a white cotton, long, belted tunic over long pants and a cape tied on one shoulder over it all. The fabric has shading to give it a three-dimensionality. He drinks from a stemmed cup that he holds in his left hand; perhaps it is wine or pulque. In his right hand is a black bolero hat, another European introduction. To dress like, and to sit on a short, yellow icpalli seat like this suggests that he is a member of the elite. Next to him are two peyote buttons. They are light brown, round, and have dark brown centers, resulting in a look something like donuts.
Stephanie Wood
The contextualizing image shows that these peyote buttons are featured next to some hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl). Perhaps the man’s drinking is part of the European-influenced imagination that the mushrooms, peyote, and alcohol are all intoxicants. The cut-off tree located on the far right edge of the landscape setting seems to add another dimension of doom, again perhaps reflecting the European concern about Indigenous people and what were perceived to be their vices. There are no hieroglyphs in this collection (as of November 2025) that show peyote, just another iconographic example that also comes from the Florentine Codex. The painting of the peyote here is more realistic, suggesting that the tlacuilo had seen some actual peyote buttons.
Stephanie Wood
Peiotl
peyotl
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
alucinógeno, alucinógenos, cactos, cacti, cactus, psychedelic, psicodélico, psicodélicos
peyo(tl), peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/peyotl
el peyote
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 142v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/142v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 2025.
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.”
