xicamaxihuitl (FCbk11f138v)

xicamaxihuitl (FCbk11f138v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring jícama (xicamaxihuitl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a plant with three branches with small green leaves. One of these branches has a red bud and a red blossom that has opened at the tip. The middle branch, at its upper tip, has two curling tendrils. Finally, the roots include tiny fibers and two bulbous roots that are white. The latter is the edible part that many in the world will know today.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This digital collection does not yet (as of November 2025) include an example of xicamaxihuitl, but it is such a common plant food, perhaps it will appear as a hieroglyph in another manuscript that will be studied in the future.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

la jícama

Gloss/Text 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: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
green (light)
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Keywords: 

tubers, tubérculos, jícamas, comida, plantas

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

This photo of jícama roots is offered as a Creative Commons image on Pl@ntNet.

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

xicamaxihui(tl), jícama, an edible root, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xicamaxihuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la jícama

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. 138v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/138v/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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.”

Orthography: 
"v" for u, uh, or hu
Historical Contextualizing Image: