tetzahuitl (FCbk8f78v)

tetzahuitl (FCbk8f78v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a frightening omen (tetzahuitl) in the sky of a flame and trailing smoke (probably a comet, citlalin popoca) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a vertical chain of six swirling balls of purple-gray smoke with a stem at the bottom. Above the smoke is a vertical cluster of flames, four of them outlined in black and painted yellow, with additional, smaller, red-orange flames poking upward between those that are outlined.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

As of July 2025, we have nothing quite like this tetzahuitl, just examples of the personal name Tetzauh, most of which are frightening in other ways, not omens in the sky. One is not frightening at all, because it is purely phonetic. This tetzahuitl also differs from most of the examples of xiuhtli (comets), which can appear more like serpents in the sky.

Added 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:

Celestial Phenomena

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

spiky

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

wavy

Keywords:

omen, omens, augury, auguries, agueros, cosas espantosas, fuego, llama, llamas, humo, cielo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tetzahui(tl), a omen or frightening thing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetzahuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

cosa escandalosa, o espantosa; cosa de aguero

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 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 7v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/7v/images/0 Accessed 26 July 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: