Mexicatlalli (FCbk11f230v)
This iconographic example, featuring (Mexicatlalli, or Mexicahtlalli, with the glottal stop), 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 black-ink sketch in a rectangular box of two Nahua men in a landscape scene with grass and trees. The man on the left wears only a loincloth. He is shown in profile, walking toward the viewer’s right. He has a segmented stick or cane in his right hand. It has a Y-shape at the bottom. The other man, seated on the ground on the right, holds a net that is attached to a hoop, and the hoop is attached to a tall stick. These men are located within the territory that includes the city (altepetl) of Mexico and all the land that belongs to it (the mexicayotl). The text adds that this is a good, favorable place.
Stephanie Wood
The net is likely a reference to fishing on the lakes surrounding Mexico City, while the stick held by the other man might be a digging stick used by Mexica agriculturalists. The term Mexica is the root of several hieroglyphs in this digital collection (as of January 2026), including two for the place name Mexico, two for individuals referred to as Mexicatl, one Mexicamani (i.e., “in the manner of a Mexicatl”), three referencing Mexica (a plural) that shows warriors, and one showing two Mexica topileque (male constables). These can all be found through the Quick Search, but see a few examples, below.
Stephanie Wood
Mexicatlalli
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
etnia, etnias, zona, zonas, territorio, territorios, región, regiones, ciudad, ciudades, tierras, mexicas, nahuas
Mexicatlalli, the land of the Mexica, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Mexicatlalli
la tierra de los Mexica (Mexicah, o el territorio de los mexicas)
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 230v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/230v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 2025.
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.”
