quetzalcoatl (FCbk11f89v)
This iconographic example, featuring a snake called quetzalcoatl, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the page prior to the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a dragon-like serpent in multiple colors (gray, red, green, and yellow). It has many feathers on the back of its neck and all down its spine. It is undulating and has a hint of a rattler tail. Its mouth is open, and its red, bifurcated tongue protrudes. The contextualizing image shows this snake or serpent in a landscape. The landscape setting for these creatures shows European artistic influence. The text describes the snake as deadly poisonous, adding that after biting someone, the snake also dies.
This digital collection mainly has glyphs for the personal name, Quetzalcoatl, rather than the deity name, and none of the snake. Iconographic examples show two images of the divine force and one of a high priest. One can do a Quick Search for quetzalcoatl to see all examples.
Stephanie Wood
Quetzalcooatl
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
Quetzalcohuatl, feathers, plumas, crótalos, serpientes emplumadas
quetzalcoa(tl), a type of snake, a personal name, and a deity name, a name for a high priest, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzalcoatl
la serpiente emplumada
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 89v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/89v/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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.”
