michin (FCbk11f61v)

michin (FCbk11f61v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a fish (michin), 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 fish in profile, facing left. It is swimming in water that includes lines of current and two swirls or whirlpools (both suggesting movement). This gray fish has a fin on the top, bottom, and side of its body. Its tail is bifurcated. The water is painted a turquoise blue.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The detail in this fish and its contextualization are impressive. Nahuatl hieroglyphs of fish could be more economically drawn, although there is always some attention to detail. This particular example is also valuable for what it shows of the iconography of a stream or lake, with the swirling water. A “Quick Search” for the word swirl will bring up many examples of swirling water, which was a characteristic of water that was on a par with swirling air and wind, which was held as something sacred or spiritual, especially when associated with the divine force, Ehecatl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Michi

Gloss/Text Normalization:

michin

Gloss/Text 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:

Animals: Misc.

Marine, Maritime, Lacustrine

Movement

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

brown

gray

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Keywords:

whirlpool, whirlpools, swirling waters, peces, remolino, remolinos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

mich(in), fish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/michin

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el pez

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 61v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/61v/images/0 Accessed 16 October 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: