sacabuche (CST10)

sacabuche (CST10)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painting of the simplex glyph for the horned instrument called a sacabuche (sackbut) that was introduced into the Nahua world through the Spanish colonization. It was an instrument originally played in Santa Catalina Texupan’s Catholic church. This glyph shows an S-shaped metal horn, painted a gold color. The instrument shows seams in the pipe and connecting struts that hold the instrument together.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The glyph for “trompetas” that comes from this same manuscript shows instruments that look much like this sacabuche. So, perhaps they all are. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Sierra/Texupan, Codex (CST)
Date of Manuscript: 

1550–1564

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Metals, Minerals, Mining
Music, Song, Dance
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
S-shapes (any direction)
profile view
facing left
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

instrumentos, metales, música, precursor del trombón

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

sacabuche, sackbut, a musical horn, a loan from Spanish that entered Nahuatl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/sacabuche

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

sacabuche

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 10, page dated 1553. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=sear...

Image Source, Rights: 

The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Chamil (MH529r)

chicuei trompetas (CST2)