temolin (FCbk11f106r)

temolin (FCbk11f106r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a beetle (temolin), 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 the temolin in a profile view, facing left. It is a reddish-brown with a white, segmented belly. The contextualizing image shows three of these beetles from different angles. None of them is black. The nearby text explains how these bugs come out in the rainy season, and they eat flowers. The temolin has a head with a visible eye and two antennae, a hard shell, wings under the shell, a segmented body, and legs. This beetle is placed in a landscape setting, which suggests European artistic influence.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This collection so far (November 2025) has only one example of a temolin Nahuatl hieroglyph. This is a sign for the personal name Temol. See below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Temoli

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

temolin

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: Insects & Bugs
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
segmented
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

escarabajuelo, escarabajuelo, escarabajos, jicote, jicotes, mayate, mayates, bicho, bichos

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

temol(in), a beetle, possibly a black beetle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/temolin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

un tipo de escarabajo (posiblemente negro)

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. 106r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/106r/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.”

Orthography: 
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Temol (MH639r)