tepoztlahuitolli (FCbk12f22v)
This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of two Spaniards holding crossbows (tepoztlahuitolli), 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 one Spaniard in a profile view, facing left, riding a horse that is riled up, with its front legs in the air. This man holds the crossbow as though ready to shoot. The other Spaniard, also on horseback, has his back to the viewer. He is turned away, looking at three or four additional Spaniards. These men are all on the “march to Tenochtitlan.” The tlacuilo is showing a sincere interest in the Spaniards’ weapons.
Stephanie Wood
The Nahuas may have taken an interest in the crossbow over time. By 1560, in the Matrícula de Huexotzinco, the personal name Tlaxich is quite prevalent, represented by arrows, bolts, or spears with barbs on one side of the tip–the type of projectile that could have been shot from a crossbow. The term tlaxichtli may have originally referred to wooden pegs or stakes, but the visuals certainly lean more toward a barbed spear. Also, the barbs are often painted red, as though bloody. Further research would be helpful.
Stephanie Wood
tepuztlavitulli
tepoztlahuitolli
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
ballestas, arma, armas, lanza de púas
tepoztlahuitol(li), a crossbow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepoztlahuitolli
la ballesta
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. 22v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/22v/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.
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.”
