quetzaltototl (FCbk11f19v)

quetzaltototl (FCbk11f19v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a quetzal bird (quetzaltototl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the Nahuatl text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a blue-green bird in profile, walking forward, facing the viewer’s right. Its left foot is in the air. It has short feathers standing up on the top of its head. Its tail feathers are somewhat long. The bird is set in a landscape, which shows European artistic influences.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This digital collection, with over 7,000 records as of October 2025, does not have another single quetzal bird. What is very common is the quetzalli (quetzal bird’s long tail feathers), which can be found bundled, suggesting trade or tributes. One bundle of quetzalli, wrapped with a woven petlatl, is clearly a tribute item (tlacalaquilli). The long green feathers also appear especially frequently in the iconographic scenes where men wear headdresses and in glyphs of names such as Quetzalcoatl and Quetzalecatl, etc.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Quetzaltototl

Gloss Normalization:

quetzaltototl

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)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Feathers

Movement

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (dark)

green (light)

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

pájaros, quetzales, pluma, plumas verdes, ave, aves

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quetzaltoto(tl), a quetzal bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quetzaltototl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el pájaro quetzal

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. 19v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/19v/images/0 Accessed 7 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: