xicalli (FCbk5f16v)

xicalli (FCbk5f16v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, showing a woman holding up a bowl full of a beverage that she would be feeding to some young men, is included here for the purpose of comparing it with the xicalli and the caxitl, two types of vessels, whether bowls or cups. In this example, as the contextualizing image shows, the woman (identifiable by her huipilli and her neaxtlahualli or axtlacuilli hairstyle) is speaking and preparing to nourish the two men seated at her feet. The older brother was to drink some of the beverage first.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

See below for examples of the xicalli and the caxitl. The team behind the Digital Florentine Codex have provided both of these terms as keywords for this scene. The image is not glossed with xicalli or with caxitl, although the word molcaxic does appear on the same page in reference to a cooking pot. Apparently, the vessel in the woman’s hand could be either.

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:

Beverages

Containers, Dishes, Eating Utensils

Food, Eating, Cooking

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

Keywords:

jícaras, ollas, cuenco, cuencos, tazón, tazones, molcajete, molcajetes

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

xical(li), a bowl or cup, 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 5: The Omens", fol. 16v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/5/folio/16v/images/0 Accessed 1 July 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: