visorey (Osu21r)

Unlike the other compound glyph for visorrey on folio 15r of this same codex, this one has coloring: a red pupil on the eye, and the first half of the speech scroll is red (the curling part is white). Note how the tlatoa scroll refers not to a Nahua tlatoani (the norm) but to a Spaniard. The contextualizing image shows how this powerful man is the viceroy don Luis de Velasco. He was one of the more popular and best remembered viceroys in local histories (títulos primordiales) written in Nahuatl. The iconography of his power is rooted in his curule chair and the way he gestures with the index figure on his left hand (a phenomenon that the Nahuas usually called mapilhuia). Behind the viceroy is what one might call a tecpan, a ruler’s palace, which stands out because of the row of white circles with dots (much like water droplets or beads) across the front, above the entryway. This is another symbol of his governing role.