tlalli (FCbk11f215v)

tlalli (FCbk11f215v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This element from a compound, featuring the landscape (tlalli) where tin (amochitl) ore will be located, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs and their elements. 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 horizontal rectangle with a row of three backwards C-shapes. Above these shapes is a row of dots, and below them, another row of dots. The dots may represent seeds, and the C-shapes may indicate cultivation, such as where the digging stick (huictli) had penetrated.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

These details of the tlalli are classic ones that date back at least to c. 1541 (the Codex Mendoza) and had enduring value. The early ones, however, might face the C-shapes in different directions; they sometimes also divided the strip of land into parcels of alternating colors.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tlalli

Gloss/Text 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)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

early evolution

later evolution

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Land Parcels, Use, Issues

Landscape Features

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

C-shapes (any direction)

dotted, granular, textured

frontal view

rectangular

shading and parallel line hatching

Keywords:

lands, parcels, tracts, tierras

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlal(li), land, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la tierra

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 215v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/215v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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: