tlatlachpana (FCbk12f51v)

tlatlachpana (FCbk12f51v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of Nahua men sweeping all around (tlatlachpana) the principal temple, 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 people cleaning up after battles with invading Spaniards (who had gone to Tlaxcala with those allies) and in preparation for some religious celebrations. Here, the brooms appear to be clusters of twigs.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

There is a tlachpanaliztli iconographic example in this collection from the Codex Osuna. But, while sweeping was a daily activity, there are no examples yet of hieroglyphs about sweeping. The text in the Florentine Codex about the sweeping shown here involves a preterit impersonal conjugation of the verb, “there was a sweeping from all sides.”

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

…tlatlachpanoc…

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: 
reduplication (in gloss/text)
reduplication (visual)
verb
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Cleanliness, Orderliness, and their absence
Gender (male)
Religion (Indigenous)
War or Conflict
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
boxed in
frontal view
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

deshollinar

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tlatlachpana, to sweep here and there, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatlachpana

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

barrer en varios lados

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. 51v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/51v/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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

tlachpanaliztli (Osu15v)