xicalli (FCbk11f199v)

xicalli (FCbk11f199v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a cup (xicalli), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords associated with this page in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss or relevant text on this page. This example shows a frontal view of a cup with a stem, an elaborate decoration along the top of the cup and some on the base, a dotted substance (perhaps seeds) coming out of the top, and one volute (presumably of steam) arising from the dots. Judging from the text on the previous page, these are teopochotl (silk cotton tree) seeds. The contextualizing image shows how the woman is preparing this food. The text explains that this substance will fatten animals and people.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Dotted substances in dishes can also represent foam or bubbles, but since the text mentions seeds, that seems the most likely here. The xicalli can be a cup or a bowl. One very similar cup to the one pictured here is found in the Codex Mendoza on folio 68 recto. Volutes can represent words, breath, smoke, dust, and more.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Containers, Dishes, Eating Utensils

Gender (female)

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

frontal view

volute(s)

Keywords:

semilla, comida, cocinar, jícaras, copas, cuenco, cuencos, semillas, pochotl, teopochotl

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xical(li), a jícara, a gourd vessel (cup or bowl) for drinking, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xicalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la jícara

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 199v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/199v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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: