texancalli (Mdz70r)
This example of iconography from the Codex Mendoza shows a man in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. He is speaking, given that four turquoise-blue volutes or speech scrolls emerge from his mouth. To have the authority to speak was the right of a tlatoani, or ruler. He also sits on a woven mat and throne, which are symbols of governance. He wears a cape with a multi-colored border, a sign of high status. He is sitting in the entryway of a building (calli) that is white with T-shaped beams that are a terracotta color. The gloss says that this is a house where people gather for public works labor. The man is given the title "petlacalcatl," which is translated into Spanish as "mayordomo" (overseer). The location is said to be Texancalco, which is what prompted us to label the building a texancalli, a house where majordomos and stewards were housed.
Stephanie Wood
texancalco
Stephanie Wood
by 1553 at the latest
casas, edificios, mayordomos, hombres, hablar, volutas, arquitectura, gobierno indígena
texancal(li), a house where majordomos and stewards were housed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/texancalli
una casa para mayordomos
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 70 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 150 of 188.
Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)