Cipac (MH603v)

Cipac (MH603v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cipac (“Crocodile,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a profile view of a crocodile, facing toward the viewer's right, with its mouth open. It has ridges on both its back and stomach and a bifurcated tail. Tonalli-like (shimmer) lines come off the top of the animal, and there is something of a diamond shape in the middle of its body.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This name is a day sign. Originally, a name like this would have a number attached to it. But calendrical names were evolving at the time of this manuscript (1560), often dropping their numbers. This day sign comes from the tonalpohualli, the 260-day divinatory calendar. Calendrics figure importantly in Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos. The thirteen-day cycle that was started by One-Cipactli was an auspicious time to be born according to a downloadable publication hosted by Mexicolore.

The lines radiating from the top of this animal are also found in an example of tzitzimitl (supernaturals), in that case emanating from the head of an eagle.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

melchiol çipac

Gloss Normalization: 

Melchor Cipac

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Keywords: 

alligators, cocodrilos, crocodiles, días, calendarios, nombres, tonalli, vitalidad, animales, nombres de hombres

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

cipac(tli), crocodile, caiman, alligator, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cipactli
tonal(li), day, sun, or animating force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Cocodrilo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 603v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=289st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography: 
Historical Contextualizing Image: