Xochitototl (BMap H40)

Xochitototl (BMap H40)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound sign is a person's name, "Flower Bird" (male), according to Gordon Whittaker. The flower (xochitl), on the bottom, has three round blossoms, a stem, two leaves close to the stem, and one larger leaf standing a bit apart. Remnants of color still appear, especially the blue-green of the stem and leaves. The top element, the bird (tototl), faces to our left, with its beak held high, facing the head of the man who had this name. The bird also still has remnants of the blue-green color on much of its body, minus its chest and beak.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary provides examples of the names Xochitl and Tototl in alphabetic manuscripts from the post-contact period, too. This example is male, as shown in the contextualizing image.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Beinecke Map (BMap)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City or the Valley of Mexico

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

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
tripartite
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

Beinecke, birds, flowers, pájaros, flores, plantas

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

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

Whittaker's Transliteration: 

XOCHI-TOTO(TL)

Image Source: 

Beinecke Map/Codex Reese, section 8, no. 40 in the Whittaker study (published in the Miller/Mundy book, 2012), and see the original at: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3600017

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Xochitototl (MH775v)