pinahuiztli (FCbk11f94r)

pinahuiztli (FCbk11f94r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, supposedly featuring a Jerusalem cricket (pinahuiztli), 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 the bug in profile, facing toward the viewer’s right. Its body is light brown (with darker brown shading on the sides and bottom), its head is black. This pinahuiztli has six or more legs, and two tall but curving antennae. The landscape setting (even more visible in the contextualizing image) shows European artistic influences. The Jerusalem cricket should look something like a cross between a bee (with a striped body) and a grasshopper, with legs that allow it to jump.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first example of a pinahuiztli to enter this collection. It appears to be more of a round bug than a cricket. There is another beetle in this collection and a spider that looks more like a beetle.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Pinaviztli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

pinahuiztli

Gloss/Text 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)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Insects & Bugs

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

grillos, chinche, chinches, bicho, bichos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

pinahuiz(tli), a beetle taken as an omen, or a Jerusalem cricket, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pinahuiztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el grillo “cara de niño”

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 94r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/94r/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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:

"v" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: