ayotochtli (FCbk11f65r)

ayotochtli (FCbk11f65r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring an armadillo (ayotochtli), 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 the armadillo in profile, facing the viewer’s right. Its left front leg is raised, suggesting movement. Unlike most, this armadillo has long ears and it does not have the bands across the middle of its back. This animal is placed on a blue-green ground, a feature that suggests European artistic influences. The shading that created three-dimensionality is another feature of these influences.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Like turtles and rabbits, the ayotochtli (literally, turtle-rabbit, or armadiillo) has edible flesh. The two examples of the ayotochtli from the Codex Mendoza are part-rabbit, part-turtle. These features seem to be phonetic indicators.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Aiotochtli

Gloss/Text Normalization:

ayotochtli

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)

visual movement

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Misc.

Movement

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

armadillos, animals, animales

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ayotoch(tli), an armadillo, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ayotochtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el armadillo

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. 65r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/65r/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: