tlatzonqui (FCbk10f23r)

This iconographic example, featuring a tailor (tlatzonqui, or tlahtzonqui with the glottal stop), 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 on the same page as the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a ¾ view of a fully clothed man, wearing a European shirt and trousers and a Nahua elite cloak (tilmatli/tilmahtli), tied on a shoulder, and worn over the other clothing. The clothing has shading that gives it a three-dimensionality. He is barefooted. The man leans over a wooden table with four legs. On the table is a large red piece of fabric (keyworded in the DFC as tlaquimiliuhcayotl or tetectli). The man holds the cloth with his left hand and has a pair of scissors (keyworded in the DFC as tlateco tixeras or tlatequiloni) in his right hand. He is apparently about to cut the fabric. In another image on this same page, he sits with the cloth in his lap, sewing it with a large needle. The making of clothing originally fell primarily to women, but the introduction of the European occupation of tailor represented something of a gender shift, but women continued to make most clothing for centuries to come.