teocalli (FCbk12f41r)
This iconographic example of a teocalli (a Nahua devotional building) is presented in a frontal view. It is a single pyramid with two buildings on top. They each have their own entryway. The one on the right has a facade over the entryway with a darkish background and small white round objects, perhaps stars (given how they mirror the stars on the glyph for Citlaltepec). The one on the left has what may be water droplets across the facade above the entryway, which would seem to be a link to Tlaloc, the divine force of the rain. Crenelation or ramparts appear on the tops of both buildings. The one on the left has butterflies, and the one on the right has volutes, perhaps meant to recall the ecailacaztli (cross-section of a shell with the whirlwind spiral).
Stephanie Wood
As shown in the contextualizing image, in front of this temple the ruler of Cuauhxicalco was about to be burned on a pyre. To allow for a focus on the teocalli, we have digitall removed the ruler. As always, when one wishes to find an absolutely original view, it is best to follow the links to the originals. Here, too, where there is no gloss, we are accepting the designation of teocalli for this building, which is the keyword given to the image by the Digital Florentine Codex team. To understand more fully the visual representations and naming of the teocalli and teopan (also called teopantli and teopancalli) deserves further research. There have been studies of the “twin pyramids” built by Nahuas in pre-contact times, such as the ones in the templos mayores of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, but also found elsewhere. See, for example, Ian Mursell’s short study in Mexicolore and the examples below.
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
templo, templos, arquitectura, estructuras, casas, capillas, estrella, estrellas, stars, water, agua
teocal(li), temple or devotional building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teocalli
el templo
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 12: The Conquest of Mexico", fol. 41r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/12/folio/41r/images/73ae5bc4-1... Accessed 24 June 2025.
Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”
