tzotzopaztli (FCbk8f31v)

tzotzopaztli (FCbk8f31v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a weaving batten (tzotzopaztli), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text on the same page as the image. This example shows a thin wooden implement with somewhat rounded, yet still pointed, ends. It is a brown color, but it has some black markings on it that are undecipherable. Two other horizontal, wooden parts to what was likely a backstrap loom appear with the tzotzopaztli. These may be what are referred to in the texts as omitzotzopaztli (a bone one, although all appear to be of wood) and tzotzopaztepiton (a little one).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Besides being a tool for weaving, the tzotzopaztli was, in a sense, a woman’s knife, sword, or machete, certainly symbolic of her power but also possibly wielded in conflicts. In a scene in the primordial titles of Ocoyacac, a woman carries a “tzutuzpastli” in an aggressive stance alongside men holding clubs (the macuahuitl) with embedded obsidian points. The tzotzopaztli was also a ritual object, as an article in Mexico Desconocido describes. Images show some examples carved with culturally meaningful figures. The divine force Ilamateuctli holds a tzotzopaztli in a detail from the Codex Telleriano-Remensis. As of summer 2025 we do not yet have any glyphs showing the tzotzopaztli in this digital collection.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tzotzopaztli

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

pointed (see also spiky)

Keywords:

listón, listones, implemento para tejer, herramienta de tejido, textiles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tzotzopaz(tli), a batten, a weaving implement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzotzopaztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el palo de telar, or el machete tejedor

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. 31v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/31v/images/0 Accessed 16 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: