Tzapocueitl (FCbk8f10r)

Tzapocueitl (FCbk8f10r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex personal name glyph for Tzapocueitl (or Tzapocuetzin, in the reverential form), the name of a ruler of Huexotla (today, Huejutla). The name refers to a sapota-leaf skirt. The glyph shows what may be a skirt (cueitl) with a dark waist band, dots (perhaps representing the tzapotl fruit), and slits at the bottom. This garment also vaguely resembles a quemitl (bib-like ritual garment) which, if made from sapota leaves, could represent the name Tzapoquen (adding back the final “n” which may have dropped away from the name in the text), or Tzapoquentzin.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The quemitl usually has ties at the top for hanging the garment from a person’s neck, and this garment does not have those ties, which pushes it more toward the reading of skirt (cueitl), which the orthography of the text also supports. It would be strange for a Q- start to a name to change to a C-. Admittedly, except for the missing ties at the top, this garment does look something like a quemitl. See examples of both garments, below, along with two examples of a tzapotl tree.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tzapocuetzin

Gloss Normalization:

Tzapocuetzin

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising

Gender (male)

Land Parcels, Use, Issues

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Plants, Flora

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

fringed

frontal view

rectangular

Keywords:

frutas, hojas, árboles, ropa, faldas, gobernante, gobernantes, gobernador, gobernadores, tlatoani, tlahtoani, tlatoque, tlahtohqueh, teuctli, tecuhtli, Huejutla, nombres de hombres, hombres famosos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tzapocue(itl), a sapodilla leaf skirt, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzapocueitl
tzapo(tl), sapota or zapote, a type of fruit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzapotl
cue(itl), a skirt, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cueitl
cuem(itl), an agricultural parcel, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuemitl
quem(itl), a bib-like ritual garment, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quemitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Falda de Hojas de Zapote

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 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 10r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/10r/images/39bf79b8-2d... Accessed 5 August 2025.

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: