xicalli (Mdz68r)
This example of iconography features a frontal view of a ceramic cup for the chocolate beverage (according to the gloss--see below). Four cacao beans stick up at the top of the cup. Red and white designs appear on a horizontal band on the upper part of the cup and on the stem at the bottom. Otherwise, the cup is a terracotta color, suggesting it is made of local clay.
Stephanie Wood
Chocolate was consumed by members of the social hierarchy. The design of the cup suggests this, too. The shape of a cacao beverage cup is one of various shapes for the xicalli glyphs in this collection (see some examples below). They can have a trapezoidal shape, a curved bottom, and a stem, such as this one. Some xicalli were made from gourds.
Stephanie Wood
xicara cō cacao
pa bever
jícara con cacao para beber
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
cups, containers, vessels, jícaras
xicalli
la jícara
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 68 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., Image 146 of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
