Tlahuitol (FCbk8f9r)

Tlahuitol (FCbk8f9r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph of the personal name Tlahuitol (Tlahuitolli or Tlahuitoltzin), “Bow,” shows a vertical pair of bow and arrow. The bow (tlahuitolli) is brown, probably a flexible wood, and the cord is white, probably twisted animal tendon material or braided animal skin. The arrow is yellow with white fletching at the top and a black, probably obsidian, point at the bottom. This could be used for hunting and/or fighting.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

We have one other Tlahuitol glyph in this collection as of July 2025. Nahua names were often truncated, dropping off the absolutive endings of nouns, which is why we are calling this name Tlahuitol after peeling off the reverential. But the name is usually seen in historical records with the reverential suffix (-tzin).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

don Antonio tlavitoltzin

Gloss Normalization: 

Don Antonio Tlahuiltoltzin

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Feathers
Gender (male)
Hunting and Fishing
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Weapons, Shields, Armor
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
brown
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
tied, bound, or bundled
Keywords: 

arcos, flechas, cazar, arma, armas, pelear, batallar, gobernador, gobernadores, gobernante, gobernantes, tlatoani, tlatoque, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

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

tlahuitol(li), a bow for shooting arrows, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlahuitolli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Arco Para Tirar, o Ballesta (Alonso de Molina)

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. 9r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/9r/images/a79ff9a0-335... 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.”

Orthography: 
"v" for u, uh, or hu
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tlahuitol (MH530v)