Tlatelolco (FCbk12f54r)

Tlatelolco (FCbk12f54r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound hieroglyph features a black and white sketch of the place name for Tlatelolco. It is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. 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 mound (tlatelli) with dots and backward C-shapes, possibly referring to land (tlalli), a near homophone for the start to the place name. In front of the mound is a war shield and three lances or arrows (a symbol for warfare, which was happening at that time), and standing on top of the mound is a bird, probably an eagle.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The hieroglyph for Tlatelolco in the Codex Mendoza is limited to the mound. It is dotted (perhaps relating to the earlier place name Xaltelolco); it does not have the backward C-shapes–suggesting tlalli–that this one has.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

…tlatilulco…

Gloss/Text Normalization:

…Tlatelolco…

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Names (places)

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

boxed in

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

back to front

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

montículo, montículos, escudo, escudos, tierra, tierras, armas, águila, águilas, animals, animales

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Tlatelolco, an important altepetl near Tenochtitlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Tlatelolco

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

[el jeroglífico de Tlatelolco]

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 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. 54r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/54r/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.

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:

"i" for e

"u" for o

Historical Contextualizing Image: