tecuicitli (FCbk11f63r)

tecuicitli (FCbk11f63r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a crab (tecuicitli, or tecuicihtli, with the glottal stop), 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 bird’s eye view of a crab, largely in the water. It has six legs with pincers, reaching upward. Its body is quite round and segmented with horizontal lines. Two protruding eyes (at the ends of eyestalks) are visible at the top, along with what may be some small antennae.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The only other visual of what is apparently a tecuicitli in this collection (as of October 2025) is the Nahuatl hieroglyph of the personal name Tecuici. The glyph does not look much like a crab, however. Another personal name, this time for crayfish (Cozol, from cozolin), also seems to lack the pincers.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Tecuicitli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

tecuicitli

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:

Animals: Misc.

Marine, Maritime, Lacustrine

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

brown

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

circle, circular or rounded

segmented

Keywords:

cangrejos, pinza, pinzas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ecuici(tli), a crab, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuicitli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el cangrejo

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. 63r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/63r/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: