tlamatini (FCbk10f19v)

tlamatini (FCbk10f19v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a wise man (tlamatini) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a fully clothed man, wearing a European type of shirt and a cloak (tilmatli) tied over a shoulder. He is pointing with his right index finger, representing the verb mapilhuia (or mahpilhuia, with the glottal stop), a significant marker of his authority. He speaks, emitting interesting volutes from his mouth. These speech scrolls have little added circles that are attached to the outside curve of each of the two volutes. The contextualizing text explains how the tlamatini can be a physician (ticitl) and a teacher (temachtli), among other lofty roles.The contexualizing image shows some objects on the floor near this man, perhaps related to his role as a physician.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Glyphs for “tlama” show physician’s medicine containers, as does a glyph for tlamatque (or tlamatqueh, healers), below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tlamatini

Gloss 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)

visual sound

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Education, Knowledge, Wisdom

Gestures with hands

Health, Medicine

Scrolls (Speech, Song, etc.)

Speech, Speaking, Oral Tradition, Languages

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

volute(s)

Keywords:

médico, médicos, medicinas, volutas, apuntar, autoridad, volutas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlamatini, a sage, a wise person, a scholar, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamatini

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el sabio

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. 19v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/19v/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: