temetztli (FCbk11f214v)

This is a compound glyph for temetztli (lead). The entry concerned with it appears on folio 214 verso of Book 11, “Earthly Things,” Chapter 9, “all the metals which are in the earth,” of the General History of the Things of New Spain, also known as the Florentine Codex. The compound glyph is made up of two elements that are separated from each other in a mountainous landscape, all rendered in black outlining. These elements are shaded in a range of grays. The element on the left is a crescent moon (metztli) with a human face in profile looking to the viewer's right. The moon has a semantic value, because lead was believed to be excrement from the moon (like gold is excrement from the sun). On the right is a large rock or stone (tetl) resting horizontally on the ground, a phonetic indicator for the te- beginning of the word. The tetl is drawn in a somewhat more naturalistic way than was the norm in earlier times (see below), but it retains a contrasting and curving band running through its middle. The surface of the stone has short, black vertical marks arranged in several lines across its surface that suggest a rough texture. The entire rendition of the two-element glyph betrays a certain amount of European influence.