Amaxoch (MH795v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Amaxoch ("Paper-Flower") is attested here as a woman's name. The glyph is simply a blank square. It is reminiscent of a glyph in this collection that is also just one piece of paper (amatl), though it is yellow. The flower part of this name was not added, even though there is a flower in another glyph for Amaxoch, and in yet one more, there is a flower shape made of paper. See below.
Stephanie Wood
What appear to be more prevalent in the 1540s than the 1560s are glyphs for paper (amatl) that are blank, rolled, and tied. See three examples of the rollec paper from the Codex de Mendoza folios 16 recto, 23 verso, and 24 verso. Perhaps as European influence in ways of writing increased, and Nahua tlacuilos began using sheet paper, the glyphs reflected this change. Besides the increase in attestions of glyphs of sheet paper, glyphs from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco also show the rise of bound paper books in glyphs.
The verb amaxochichihua (to make paper flowers) appears in the Florentine Codex, Book 11, folio 202, according to Wimmer (2004) in the Gran Diccionario Náhuatl, where it is related: “nicamâxochichîhua, j'en fais un lit de fleurs = I make a bed of flowers with them.” For an illustration of paper flowers that were worn during a ceremony, see the lowest image on this page of the Digital Florentine Codex. Circles of paper that were folded like flowers would also appear in a ceremonial dance (in Book 2, folio 36 recto/vuelto).
Stephanie Wood
matharenā amaxoch
Magdalena Amaxoch
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
nombres de mujeres, papel, amate, flores
ama(tl), paper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amatl
xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
Flor de Papel
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 795v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=665&st=image
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).