Tenochtitlan (FCbk12f54r)

Tenochtitlan (FCbk12f54r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of compound hieroglyph for Tenochtitlan, 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 compound hieroglyph for Tenochtitlan in two elements, a stone (tetl) and a prickly pear (tenochtli) cactus.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Hieroglyphs for the personal name Tenoch and for the place name Tenochtitlan are widely consistent across multiple manuscripts. This was surely one of the best known hieroglyphic place names, given that it was the capital of the empire.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tenuchtitlan

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Tenochtitlan

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (places)

Race, Ethnicity, Identity, Othering

War or Conflict

Writing, Literacy

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

fruta, frutas, tuna, tunas, planta, plantas, comida, cacto, cactos, piedra, piedras

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Tenochtitlan, Mexica capital city, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Tenochtitlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

[el jeroglífico de Tenochtitlan]

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 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. 54r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/54r/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.

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:

"u" for o

Historical Contextualizing Image: