totocuitlaxcolli (FCbk11f61r)
This iconographic example, featuring the intestines of a bird (totocuitlaxcolli), 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 spiraling intestine (cuitlaxcolli), what appear to be two livers (elli), and one other round item. These are all connected and painted red.
Stephanie Wood
On the left edge is what appears to be a liver (elli), which is thus identified by the keywording team of the DFC. It is useful here for comparing with human internal organs. The elli is often used phonetically for the “el” syllable, which is another reason for learning to recognize it. See some examples below.
Stephanie Wood
cuitlaxcolli
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
intestino, hígado, riñón, órganos internos, anatomía, pájaro, pájaros, ave, aves, eltapachtli
cuitlaxcol(li), intestines, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuitlaxcolli
toto(tl), a bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tototl
los intestinos
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 61r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/61r/images/0 Accessed 16 October 2025.
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.”
