tlanacazanoni (FCbk10f17r)

tlanacazanoni (FCbk10f17r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a carpenter’s squaring tool (tlanacazanoni), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with any related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a carpenter (male) holding an inverted, L-shaped, squaring tool with a right angle. The -nacaz- element in this noun comes from the word for ear (nacaztli), which is a body part that lent itself to various terms that involved a corner or squaring something. See our dictionary entries for examples.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The term xomolli (corner) has a similar look, but even if a 90-degree corner was surely a pre-contact concept, the tlanacazanoni may be a European introduction. Further research is needed. Another example of a squaring tool appears in the DFC, Book 10, folio 18 recto.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Gender (male)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

right angle(s)

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

herramienta, herramientas, carpintería, carpintero, carpinteros, esquina, ángulo de 90 grados

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlanacazanoni, a carpenter’s leveling or squaring tool, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlanacazanoni
nacazco, the corner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nacazco
nacazana, to make something square, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nacazana

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la escuadra

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 10: The People", fol. 17r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/17r/images/0 Accessed 5 September 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: