tlatolli (FCbk8f33v)

This iconographic example, featuring a flowery speech scroll, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. Given the lack of an adequate term in Nahuatl for “speech scroll,” the term tlatolli (speech) has been assigned to this example even though the text of the page does not mention it, there is no gloss, and the Digital Florentine Codex keywords for this image do not refer to it. This collection has many speech scrolls, but the attachment of a flower (xochitl) is somewhat rare and therefore worth tracking. The scroll is a light red, and the flower is blue and red. In the contextualizing image, one can see other speech scrolls; they are all blue and no others have this flower attached. From the text one learns that the discussion involves a plan for war. The speaker wears the temillotl hair style usually associated with warriors. It involves a red tie (perhaps a tochacatl) binding a vertical ponytail. He faces another important lord, and there is a map between them. This speaker also gestures by pointing his finger (representing the verb mapilhuia, or mahpilhuia with the glottal stop), a significant marker of his authority.