zozotlahua (FCbk12f8v)

zozotlahua (FCbk12f8v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of men having fainted (involving the verb tzotzotlahua), 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 on the page previous to the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a group of about three Nahua messengers having fallen down dizzy or having fainted (tzotzotlahuaque) aboard a Spanish ship after the Spaniards decided to try to startle and intimidate them by shooting a firearm.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This is the first example, whether iconographic or logosyllabic, of the term zozotlahua in this Visual Lexicon.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

çoçotlaoa

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

zozotlahua

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: 
reduplication (in gloss/text)
reduplication (visual)
verb
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Gestures with hands
Health, Medicine
Marine, Maritime, Lacustrine
Personality, Behavior
Race, Ethnicity, Identity, Othering
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
shading and parallel line hatching
three-dimensionality
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

desmayo, desvanecimiento, fainting, swooning, dizzy, volverse mareada, navío, navíos, barco, barcos

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

zozotlahua, to faint, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zozotlahua

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

desmayarse

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 12: Conquest of Mexico", fol. 8v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/8v/images/0 Accessed 7 February 2026.

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: 
"ç" for z or tz
"oa" for ohua
Historical Contextualizing Image: