yollotl (FCbk11f206r)

yollotl (FCbk11f206r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a heart (yollotl, or yollotli/yollohtli), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a heart with an aorta or superior vena cava at the top. The latter has a visible hole at the top. It is cut at an angle. The artist has given the heart shading on the left edge and at the base of the aorta or vein.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This heart is hieroglyphic, serving as an element in a compound glyph that says “pearl” (epyollotli). Some other heart elements already appear in this digital collection (see below). The -tli substantive suffix is attested in some manuscripts, but the -tl suffix is far more common for the word for heart.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

iollotli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

yollotl, or yollotli

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:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Keywords:

corazones, arterias, venas, vena, artería, perla, perlas, joya, joyas, piedra, piedras, órgano del cuerpo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

yollo(tl), heart, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yollotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el corazón

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. 206r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/206r/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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: