tlapitzalli (FCbk8f30r)

tlapitzalli (FCbk8f30r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a flute (tlapitzalli) 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. There is no gloss. This example shows a vertical flute with a mouth piece that is reminiscent of a wooden European recorder of the type that was popular in the sixteenth century, but the instrument is painted yellow (seemingly unlikely for wood, and perhaps more suggestive of brass). The image shows four finger holes, and above the holes is what appears to be a small red diadem tied onto the flute.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Musical instruments do not appear with great frequency in Nahuatl hieroglyphs, at least in this collection at the time of including 7,000+ records. For a few examples, see below.

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:

Music, Song, Dance

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black

orange/terracotta

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

tied, bound, or bundled

vertical, upright

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

flautas dulces, música

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlapitzal(li), a wind instrument, a flute, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlapitzalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la flauta dulce

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. 30r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/30r/images/0 Accessed 10 August 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: