Xochipal (MH492r)

Xochipal (MH492r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xochipal (attested as female here) features an upright flower (xochitl). The flower has a stem and tripartite sepal. It also has a tripartite shape to the petals, and it has two anthers protruding from the top of pistils or stamens.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The dictionary term xochipal refers to a known fruit, such as a peach or an apricot, but that is not what we are seeing, unless the flower is from one of those trees. So, if a fruit is not the name for this woman, then her name might be something like By Means of Flowers, adding the meaning of -ipal (by means of) to flower (xochi-). Flower shapes vary considerably, whether within the Codex Mendoza or between that manuscript and others. The three-part petal and two anthers does recur somewhat (see below).

In some flowers, such as this one, the anthers are rather pronounced. The anthers are the flower parts that produce and provide the pollen, which has the reproductive capacity that has been compared in Western cultures to semen.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

magthallena xochipal

Gloss Normalization: 

Magdalena Xochipal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Gender (female)
Names (places)
Sexuality, Fertility
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Xitlali Torres

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
vertical, upright
tripartite
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

xochipal, a peach or apricot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochipal
xochitl, flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
ipal, by means of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ipal

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 492r, World Digital Library,
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=63&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: 
See Also: 

xochitl (Mdz27r)

Cocoztic (MH518v)