tlapehualli (FCbk11f243v)

tlapehualli (FCbk11f243v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of thatch canopy (tlapehualli) that is called a portal in the Spanish, 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 free standing roof-like feature atop two wide trunk-like posts. This roof is thatched with three horizontal rows of grasses. Five small posts protrude above the top of the thatch. The tlapehualli stands on uneven ground, a landscape feature that was learned from colonial art instructors along with the shading that provides three-dimensionality.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

A similar canopy in this collection comes from the Codice Sierra-Texupan. That one relates to the nativity festivities at Christmas in a Mixtec town in what is now the state of Oaxaca.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Tlapeoalli

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

tlapehualli

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: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Gender (male)
Landscape Features
Plants, Flora
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
shading and parallel line hatching
three-dimensionality
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

portales, techos, zacate, grasses, thatch, wood, postes de madera

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

tlapehual(li), a canopy or portal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlapehualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

un portal con el techo de paja

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. 243v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/243v/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: 
"oa" for ohua
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

nativitas (CST9)