tezcatl (FCbk6f204r)

tezcatl (FCbk6f204r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a mirror (tezcatl) 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. The term is also found in the companion text. This example shows a round object in a frontal view (even though it is lying on the ground, it seems tipped up for viewing). It has a white border and a black center. The contextualizing image shows how this mirror appears below a torch. The text refers to a metaphor for a good speech from a ruler or a priest, offering an exemplary life for the average person (macehualli).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Several Nahuatl hieroglyphs of mirrors look just like this iconographic example, which could in fact be a glyph. Others have a red rim or a rim of another color. The older ones with a red rim also have four small circles placed evenly around the perimeter of the mirror’s rim. These seem to be there to give a sense of the shine or shimmer of the mirror. See examples below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tezcatl

Gloss Normalization:

tezcatl

Gloss 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:

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

border (red, plain, or patterned)

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

Keywords:

espejos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tezca(tl), a mirror, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezcatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el espejo

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 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy", fol. 204r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/6/folio/204r/images/0. Accessed 9 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: