Tetamazolco (FCbk12fXX)

Tetamazolco (FCbk12fXX)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-and-white sketch of the compound hieroglyph for the place name Tetamazolco (perhaps “At the Stone Toad”) 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 toad (tamazolin) in profile facing left. Its front paws are raised, as though it is about to leap. Its rear legs rest on a two-tone horizontal stone (tetl), which provides for the start to the place name. The locative suffix (-co) might be represented (if vaguely) in the water at the scene, for the text explains that the Nahuas threw a captured cannon in the water at Tetamazolco. Tetamazolco served as a deep water launch pad for boats at the end of a causeway.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Two compound hieroglyphic place names involving toads already appear in this collection, including Tamazolapan and Tamazollan, both from the Codex Mendoza, folio 43 recto. The simplex personal name Tamazol comes from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (MH516r).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

…tetamaçolco…

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

…Tetamazolco…

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)
visual movement
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Frogs/Toads
Movement
Names (places)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
facing left
profile view
striped
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

anfibia, rana, ranas, animales, nombres de lugares, calzada elevada, plataforma de lanzamiento

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

tamazol(in), a toad, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tamazolin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el sapo

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. XXX, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/XXX/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: 
"ç" for z or tz
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tamazolapan (Mdz43r)