Cuatlahuice (FCbk8f9v)

Cuatlahuice (FCbk8f9v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful compound glyph for the personal name Cuatlahuice refers to the fourth ruler of the Chichimecs who established themselves in Huexotla (today Huejutla). The glyph shows the head of a man in profile, facing the viewer’s right. His skin is terracotta-colored. A headdress of six probable quetzal feathers sits (likely a tlahuiztli, insignia) on his head (Cua-). This headdress has a base of two layers, blue at the bottom and red at the top. This red layer may involve more feathers. The headdress could have an association with warriors, given that the remainder of the name -tlahuice refers to an armed man or someone who has an insignia or coat of arms. As the contextualizing image shows, the man associated with this name glyph is sitting on a tied bundle of reeds (a tolicpalli or acacpalli), and he wears an animal skin cape that connects him to the Chichimec culture. His loincloth belt is sky blue, and he has a feathered headdress held on with a green strap and decorated with a large flower.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The root of tlahuice seems to be tlahuiztli (insignia), and this term forms the root of a number of personal name glyphs, as shown below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Quatlavice tecutli

Gloss Normalization:

Cuatlahuice tecuhtli

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:

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

tied, bound, or bundled

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

tocado, plumas, flores, insignias, distintivos, gobernador, gobernadores, gobernante, gobernantes, tlatoani, tlahtoani, tlatoque, tlahtohqueh, teuctli, hombres famosos, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Cuatlahuice, fourth Chichimec ruler of Huexotla, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuatlahuice
cua-, relating to the head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cua-0
tlahuice, possessor of insignia or a coat of arms, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlahuice

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Poseedor de unas Insignias en la Cabeza

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. 9v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/8/folio/9v/images/0 Accessed 28 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:

"q" for c

"v" for u, uh, or hu

Historical Contextualizing Image: