tecpaxalli (FCbk11f216r)

tecpaxalli (FCbk11f216r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound hieroglyph features ground flint (tecpaxalli), a powdery substance used for polishing. 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 compound has two elements, a flint knife (tecpatl) that is standing on point, with a dividing line from top to bottom, dark in color to the right of that and light to the left. This element provides the logogram for the start of the word, tecpa-. Below this weapon or knife is a cluster of grains of sand (xalli) and small rocks, which provide the -xalli ending for the term. The text explains that this powder or sand is a medium for “cleaning, polishing, thinning and scouring” (drawing from Anderson and Dibble’s translation).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This is one of several ground minerals that were used for polishing. Other examples in these pages of the Florentine Codex include tezcatlalli, temetztlalli, amochitl tlalli, etc.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Tecpaxalli (Esmeril de pedernales)

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

tecpaxalli…

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)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

piedra, piedras, pedernal, arena, rocas, polvo, pulir, limpiar, lijar

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tecpaxal(li), ground flint, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpaxalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el esmeril de pedernales

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. 216r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/216r/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.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: