Nezahualpilli (FCbk8f7v)

Nezahualpilli (FCbk8f7v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the personal name Nezahualpilli (“Son of Nezahualcoyotl”) refers to a ruler of Tetzcoco. The glyph shows the head of a man in profile, facing the viewer’s right. He has a yellow cord around his neck that is also flying off to the left. Hanging down from the cord at the man’s neck are three trapezoidal or rectangular shapes, predominantly red but with a turquoise blue horizontal stripe or border at the bottom of each one.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The man’s head likely refers to the pilli (son and/or nobleman). How the nezahual- (“fasting”) part of the name is read from the cord and/or the three objects hanging down from the neck remains unclear.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Neçaoalpilli

Gloss Normalization: 

Nezahualpilli

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)
Date of Manuscript: 

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
brown
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
rectangular
tied, bound, or bundled
trapezoidal
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

Texcoco, noble, nobles, jerarquía, Nezahualpiltzin

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

Nezahualpilli, a ruler of Tetzcoco, son of Nezahualcoyotl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Nezahualpilli
nezahual(li), ritual fasting, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nezahualli
pil(li), a child or a noble, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pilli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

(nombres de un gobernante de Tetzcoco, “Ayunador Noble”)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 8: Kings and Lords", fol. 7v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/7v/images/fd55dee7-30d... Accessed 24 July 2025.

Image Source, Rights: 

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.”

Orthography: 
"ç" for z or tz
"o" for u, uh, or hu
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Nezahualcoyotl (FCbk8f7r-v)