texotli (Mdz43r)

texotli (Mdz43r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for the color turquoise blue (texotli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Texopan.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This element is a vertical oval shape that has been drawn in black and filled in with the color turquoise. Alonso de Molina simply translated texotli "azul," as did Thelma Sullivan in translating the Primeros Memoriales, edited by Bernardino de Sahagún. [See our online Nahuatl Dictionary.] An article, "Colorantes Naturales," in México Desconocido, states that the color texotli was made from mixing clay with the the intense turquoise blue that comes from flower called Matlalxochitl.

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

Syntax: 
adjective
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Color names
Turquoise or Jade
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
oval (see also leaf shaped)
vertical, upright
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

texo(tli), blue, turquoise blue, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/texotli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

azul, el color de turquesa

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 43 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 96 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: 

Texopan (Mdz43r)