Xiuhtototl (MH493v)

Xiuhtototl (MH493v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the name of a man, Francisco Xiuhototl, shows a Lovely Cotinga bird in profile facing the viewer's right. Its wings are raised and one leg is forward (as though in movement).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Sadly, a colorant was not available to this tlacuilo, but the Lovely Cotinga has a beautiful turquoise blue, hence the name starting with xiuh-, the root for the word turquoise (xihuitl). This bird was prized for its turquoise blue feathers. It is widely cited that Xoconochco, on the Pacific coast of Chiapas, had to provide two hundred xiuhtototl skins as tributes every eighty days in the sixteenth century. The Florentine Codex, Book 4, mentions a xiuhtotoquemitl (feather-covered garment). Justyna Olko mentions a headdress that has xiuhtototl feathers. [See her book in our Bibliography, Insignia of Rank, 2014, 160.]

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

franco xiuhtototl

Gloss Normalization: 

Francisco Xiuhtototl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

Huejotzinco, Puebla

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

1560

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Feathers
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

José Aguayo-Barragán

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

birds, pájaros, plumas, feathers

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

xiuhtoto(tl), the Lovely Cotinga bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhtototl
xihui(tl), turquoise, year, or herbs, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl-0
toto(tl), a general word for bird, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tototl

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 493r, World Digital Library. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=65&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: