Tehuetzquiti (FCbk8f4v)

Tehuetzquiti (FCbk8f4v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted simplex glyph is a profile view of a man’s head, shoulder, arm, and pointing finger. He is facing toward the viewer’s right. The glyph represents the name Tehuetzquiti (perhaps “Joker”), a mid-sixteenth-century ruler of Tenochtitlan who was baptized as don Diego de Santiago. The man in the glyph has an open mouth, teeth showing, and two lines on his face that may suggest he is smiling. The pointing finger may suggest he is supposed to be one with a voice, a tlatoani (or tlahtoani, with the glottal stop, ruler).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The Codex Aubin glyph for this same ruler shows a grotesque or humorous face much like our glyph for Huetzquiz (MH666r), which is shown below. The man in the glyph here is much less obvious about its intended meaning.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

teuetzquiti

Gloss Normalization: 

Tehuetzquiti

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Gestures with hands
Humor (potentially)
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Teeth Protruding/Noticeable
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

sonreir, sonrisa, bromista, bufón, asustar, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

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

Tehuetzquiti, the name of a ruler of Tenochtitlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tehuetzquiti-0
tehuetzquiti, something the makes people laugh or frightens them,
https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tehuetzquiti

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

(nombre de un gobernante)

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 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy", fol. 168v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/4v/images/45b33116-7f1... Accessed 20 June 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: 
See Also: 

Huetzquiz (MH529r)

Huetzquiz (MH666r)