tapachtli (FCbk11f64v)

tapachtli (FCbk11f64v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a Vogde’s scallop (tapachtli), 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 near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a view of the outside of the scallop shell. This one is pink, but the contextualizing image shows two more that are white with faintly pink stripes that run perpendicular to the natural ridges of the shell. The use of three-dimensionality here suggests European artistic influence in the tlacuilo.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The term tapachtli may well be a generic term for anything like a seashell, including a scallop shell (perhaps Vogde’s scallop) or a piece of red coral. Below are a few examples from this digital collection.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Tapachtli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

tapachtli

Gloss/Text 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:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Shells

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

concha, conchas, caracol, caracoles, almejas, coral, corales

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tapach(tli), a Vogde’s scallop, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tapachtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la almeja voladora, o la almeja mano de león

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. 64v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/64v/images/0 Accessed 16 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: