popocatica tetl (FCbk10f117v)

popocatica tetl (FCbk10f117v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph, featuring a stone that appears to be smoking ([iuhquin] popocatica tetl), 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 on the page before the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a horizontal stone (tetl) with the classic curling ends and horizontal stripes and dotted lines across the middle. The stone sits on a blue-green ground. The gray smoke shoots upward (the verb, popoca, it smokes) with wavy lines that suggest movement.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

An iconographic example of a smoking stone (not glossed in the original) was labeled the same as this compound glyph. The iconographic example does suggest that the smoking stone fell from the sky. Perhaps the two smoking stones that appear in this image (the contextual version) may have been interpreted as having fallen from the sky, hence we are keywording this as celestial phenomena. The text does refer to people finding the stones at sunrise.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

popocatica tetl

Gloss 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)

verb

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Celestial Phenomena

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Movement

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

frontal view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

piedras, rocas, humo, humear, cometa, cometas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

popocatica te(tl), “as if the rock were smoking,” or a smoking stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/popocatica-tetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

como si la piedra humeara

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 10: The People", fol. 117v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/117v/images/0 Accessed 30 September 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: