Coanacochtli (FCbk8f8r)

Coanacochtli (FCbk8f8r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for the personal name Coanacochtli (Coanacoch, or Coanacochtzin, all versions meaning perhaps “Serpent-Shaped Ear Plug”) shows a profile view of a semi-coiled serpent facing toward the viewer’s right. The serpent has a light brown human ear around its body below the head, almost like a necklace. The body of the serpent is dark gray on top and white on the belly. Its skin is mottled and its belly is segmented. The serpent’s eye is open, and its tongue is protruding, bifurcated, and painted red.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This ruler of Tetzcoco (and perhaps later in Tlaxcala) had some difficulties, as our Online Nahuatl Dictionary shows. As of July 2025, this is the only glyph for this name in this digital collection.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

coanacochtzin

Gloss Normalization:

Coanacochtzin

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:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals: Reptiles

Gender (male)

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bifurcated

facing right

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

spotted or mottled

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inward (from outside in)

Keywords:

Texcoco, Coanacoch, Coanacochtzin, oreja, orejas, serpiente, serpientes, gobernante, gobernantes, gobernador, gobernadores, tlatoani, tlatoque, tlahtoani, tlahtohqueh, nombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Coanacochtli, a ruler of Tetzcoco in the Spanish colonial period, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coanacochtli
coa(tl), a serpent, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/coatl
nacoch(tli), an earring or ear plug, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nacochtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

(nombre de un gobernador, “Orejera en Forma de Serpiente”)

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. 8r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/8r/images/b64e1a96-ba1... Accessed 26 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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: