tlapehualli (FCbk10f129r)

tlapehualli (FCbk10f129r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring an animal in a trap (tlapehualli), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from a search in the Online Nahuatl Dictionary (OND) for a term equivalent to a hunting trap. The keyword chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex for what appears in this image is tochmatlatl (which is literally a rabbit net, and refers to a trap). There is no gloss and no explanation about this type of hunting on or near the page with the image. Tzonhuaztli is another term in the OND that refers to a trap for hunting animals. This example does indeed show a rabbit trapped in a net with many stakes. The net is also tied to a stake that is anchored in the ground. The contextualizing image shows that a hunter with a bow and arrow is running toward the trapped animal, while a deer and another rabbit flee nearby.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Trapping animals is not an activity that is well documented thus far (October 2025) in this collection. Some possible wooden traps appear below. The presence of eagle heads inside the traps may not really relate to the catching of eagles, because the stem for “eagle” (cuauh-) may be a phonetic indicator that the trap is made of wood (cuauh-). Still, the dictionary does have various terms referring to devices for catching birds (e.g., tlazalli, tecpahuia, tlapachohuaztli)

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:

Animals: Misc.

Gender (male)

Hunting and Fishing

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

checked, cross-hatched, or mesh

facing left

profile view

tied, bound, or bundled

Keywords:

animal, animales, cazar, atrapar, red, redes, clavados, suelo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlapehual(li), a trap, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlapehualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la trampa

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 10: The People", fol. 129v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/129v/images/0 Accessed 2 October 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: