xochitl (TR26v)

xochitl (TR26v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element of a flower has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Xochitepec in the Codex Telleriano Remensis, folio 26 verso. The flower is white, and it has four rounded petals with a right-angle point between each one. A small red-filled circle forms the center. The flower--shown in a frontal view--is still surrounded by the green from the mountain, which we chose not to cut away.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This flower is very symmetrical and has something of a quincunx shape to it, as though it could have cosmological significance. See the tonalli glyphs with their four circles, below, as well as the Tonal name glyph, which looks like a flower.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)
Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Plants, Flora
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
quincunx or quatrefoil
Keywords: 

flowers, flores, quincunxes

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

xochitl. Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Salón Mexica. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 14 February 2023.

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

xochi(tl), flower(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la flor

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 26 verso, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f78.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Matlalihuitl (MH518v)

Izquitlan (MH496v)

Tonal (MH528v)

tonalli (Mdz7v)

tonalli (Mdz12r)