yacacolli (FCbk11f252v)

yacacolli (FCbk11f252v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This is a black and white sketch of a compound hieroglyph. The term selected for this example comes from the text on the page prior to the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a sprig of an amaranth plant with one leaf. The sprig includes the seed cluster (huauhtli) with a profile of a face protruding off to the left near the top of the seed cluster. This face has a pronounced nose (yacatl) with a curl (colli) coming out of it. The curl is something like a speech scroll, but speech is not indicated in this case. These elements apparently have semantic values relating to their shapes.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The two latter elements suggest that this type of amaranth seed cluster might have a curling tip. Instead of drawing the seed cluster with such a shape, however, the tlacuilo has added two hieroglyphic elements that were still recognizable as such at this late date. In the Florentine Codex, huauhtli plant variations are numerous, but the drawings often look remarkably alike. The use of compound hieroglyphs next to the plants helps to clarify which plant is which, although some have no hieroglyphs.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Iaca colli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

yacacolli

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)

Writing Features:

later evolution

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Food, Eating, Cooking

Plants, Flora

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

shading and parallel line hatching

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

three-dimensionality

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

right to left

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

plantas, planta, comida, semilla, semillas, un punto curvo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

yacacolli, “point-twisted,” a type of amaranth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacacolli
yaca(tl), nose, point, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yacatl
col(li), bent, twisted, curling, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

un tipo de amaranto (posiblemente con una punta torcida)

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. 252v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/252v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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:

"i" for y

Historical Contextualizing Image: