visorrey (Osu10v)
This painting of a viceroy (glossed visorrey, a loanword from Spanish that was taken into Nahuatl) is included here as an example of iconography that might be useful for reading and interpreting hieroglyphs. It comes from the Codex Osuna, folio 10 verso (Image 23). This colonial ruling figure was don Luis de Velasco, as the text on the page indicates. He is seated on a carved wooden curule chair, a symbol of his authority. He gestures with his right hand. A red object appears in the area of his chest. His skin is tan and his chair is light brown. He wears a full set of dark clothing and a hat. He also has a beard.
Stephanie Wood
Don Luis de Velasco was one of the viceroys of New Spain who is most fondly remembered in Indigenous-language histories (títulos primordiales) from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, recalled especially for recognizing townships, supporting the creation of cabildos, and recognizing usufruct parcels for agriculture. Here, however, he is shown to be demanding large quantities of tributes from the Nahuas by means of a “nahuatlato” (interpreter) named Luis Pinelo, a Spaniard. The loanword virrey (which also means viceroy) was taken into Nahuatl as a loanword, and someone has written “birrey” on this page.. Another viceroy, Mendoza, had his own hieroglyphic name that Nahua tlacuilos used for him. See an example below.
1551–1565
Jeff Haskett-Wood
virreyes, oficios, visoreyes, visorey, visorrey, gobernadores españoles
visorrey, viceroy (a loanword taken into Nahuatl from Spanish), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/visorrey
el virrey
Stephanie Wood
Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.
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