calli (Mdz20v)

calli (Mdz20v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for a house or building (calli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tecalco. The building has the standard right-angles and T-shaped orange (wooden) beams at the entry way. The building is shown in a profile view, open toward the viewer's right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Joaquín Galarza argued that this standard sign for calli was half of a building. But, if we flipped the building over and joined the two pieces together, the beam across the top would not be continuous.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
year name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
elevation view
facing right
profile view
rectangular
right angle(s)
Keywords: 

houses, buildings, architecture, casas, edificios, arquitectura

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

https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

house or building

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 of 188.

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).

See Also: 

Tecalco (Mdz20v)