Toltecolol (MH499r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Toltecolol (here, attested as a man's name) shows a frontal view of a vertical, curving, stone arch with a blackened entryway. The arch is segmented by the stones. The word for stone arch is (tecololli), which is literally a stone curving thing (tetl) + (colli). The Tol- part of the name may come from Tolteca, a culture group of ancestors to the Nahuas. Perhaps this is a reference to their architectural ability. The Tol- could also come from rushes or sedges (tolin).
Stephanie Wood
Clicking "Architecture" in the Advanced Search cultural category, one will find just how rare a curved arch such as this was in traditional Nahua architecture, which typically had right angles. The curved arch may suggest European influence. The tepechtli (an architectural foundation) glyph from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco (below) has alternating rectangular stones. An older place name from the Codex Mendoza for Tepechpan (below) shows a much more traditional representation of stone.
Totecolol is a personal Nahua name, but it is preceded in the gloss by a Christian first name (Toribio). He may have been named after Toribio de Benavente, also known as Motolinia ("One Who is Poor or Afflicted"). This was the first word he learned in Nahuatl, and he went on to learn the language well. He lived in the monastery in Huejotzingo. Doing a quick search for the name "Toribio" will produce an impressive result.
Stephanie Wood
doribio
toltecolol
Toribio Toltecolol
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
stones, piedras, arches, arcos, portales, nombres de hombres
tecolol(li), stone arch, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecololli
coltic, curved, bent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coltic
colo(li), something curved, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colli
tol(in), rushes, sedge grass, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tolin-1
Tolteca, the Toltecs, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tolteca
tepech(tli)), foundation, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepechtli
El Arco de Piedra, o El Arco Al Estilo Tolteca(?)
Stephanie WOod
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 499r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=77&st=image
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
