mapilxochitl (FCbk11f190v)

mapilxochitl (FCbk11f190v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example features a black-line drawing of a “hand flower” (mapilxochitl or mahpilxochitl, with the glottal stop). It is also called the macpalxochitl. It 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 drawing that is glyph-like in part, in that the “hand” that represents the flower is a bird’s claw with long nails. This claw is attached to a stem and leaf. Perhaps a claw was chosen over a human hand because the fingers are said in the text to be “spoonlike, concave, and dark” (copichtic, copichauhqui, cuichectic).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first mapilxochitl to enter this collection. There are no such plants as hieroglyphs as yet (November 2025). But bird claws are fairly numerous. See a few below.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Mapilsuchitl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

mapilxochitl

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:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals: Birds

Flowers

Plants, Flora

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Keywords:

mano, manos, flores, dedos, garra de pájaro, planta, plantas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

mapil(li), a finger, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mapilli
macpal(li), the palm of the hand, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/macpalli
xoch(itl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la flor de manita

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. 190v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/190v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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.”

Orthography:

"s" for x

"u" for o

Historical Contextualizing Image: