tlanextli (FCbk8f3v)

tlanextli (FCbk8f3v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted simplex glyph (if we can call it that) is described in Spanish as a “grande resplandor, como una llama de fuego,” and called a tlanextli (a radiant light) in Nahuatl. It shows a vertical column of curling smoke or ash with a many-fingered fire at the top. The flames undulate upwards and some curl at the top. They are painted yellow with orange highlights. The clouds are three-dimensional, gray and white, with shading on the left side.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The dark clouds below the flame recall ash or cinders (nextli), and could have both a semantic relationship with the fiery light and a phonetic one.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

intlanextli

Gloss Normalization:

in tlanextli

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:

phonetic possibilities

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Keywords:

fuego, flama, flamas, luz, respandor, presagio, presagios

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlanex(tli), light, radiance, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlanextli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el resplandor

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. 3v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/3v/images/0. Accessed 20 June 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: