zacatlaxcalli (FCbk11f217v)

This iconographic example, featuring cakes of yellow dye material (zacatlaxcalli), 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 stack of at least five round “cakes” of the yellow die material that has been extracted from the climbing grassy plant that appears in the contextualizing image. One of the cakes is wrapped with thin strips of something like corn husks or cord. The text refers to this substance as useful for painting, and the contextualizing image shows a man holding a writing or painting implement to a large, white, rectangular canvas or piece of paper. He is apparently poised to paint or write. The text also explains that the term for tortilla (tlaxcalli) is used because the colorant is round and flat like a tortilla. The Spanish-language text refers to a “turtilla.”