quetzalpanitl (FCbk9f5r)

quetzalpanitl (FCbk9f5r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a warrior’s quetzal feather banner (quetzalpanitl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the previous folio (f4v) of the Digital Florentine Codex. This example shows a vertical wooden pole painted a terracotta color. Stretching out to the right of the pole, in a horizontal fashion, are a group of at least five green feathers, cut off at their tops, Closer to the pole are short yellow feathers. At the top of the pole is a ball of yellow (down?) feathers. Above that are four short yellow feathers and five long, curving, quetzal feathers. On folio 5v one can see how this banner is worn on a structure on one’s back.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Flags or banners (panitl) in this collection are primarily quite plain. This is a significantly important and rare feather banner. The shape of the flag tended to be vertical and rectangular, but occasionally a more European shape will appear, with a triangular cutout. Incidentally, many want to spell banner as pantli, but panitl or pamitl (varying regionally) were preferred Nahuatl spellings, and both resulted in the stem of -pan- when the absolutive was dropped. Gordon Whittaker discusses this in Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs (2021). The flag had a major phonetic role for glyphs that included a meaning of “in,” “on,” etc., typically in place names.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quetzalpanitl

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

vertical, upright

Keywords:

tlahuiztli, devisa, devisas, insignia, guerreros

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quetzalpan(itl), a quetzal feather banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzalpanitl
tlahuiz(tli), battle device or insignia, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlahuiztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la bandera de plumas quetzales

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 9: The Merchants", fol. 5r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/9/folio/5r/images/0 Accessed 26 August 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: