teocuitlatl (FCbk12f28r)

teocuitlatl (FCbk12f28r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example features a black and white sketch of a Spaniard melting golden (teocuitlatl) objects into bricks. It 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 pot full of golden objects on a fire. The Spaniard (in a ¾ view, but with his head in a profile, facing left) is blowing on the fire with a tube in order to increase the heat to a melting point. Out of a hole in the bowl, molten gold pours out into a frame where it will form a brick. This form looks much like the form for making pre-contact adobe (xaxantli) bricks. Some of the golden objects that appear below the fire are arm bands, leg bands, a round disc, and a crescent shape in gold.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The process for melting the gold into bricks is not unlike the image from the Codex Mendoza, where a Nahua gold-smith melts gold. The round discs of gold are similar to the Nahuatl hieroglyph for teocuitlachiuhqui in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (f. 730r).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

…teucuitlatl…

Gloss/Text Normalization:

…teocuitlatl…

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:

Gender (male)

Metals, Minerals, Mining

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

3/4 view

facing right

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

teocuitla(tl), sold, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teocuitlatl

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. 28r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/28r/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: