peso (Osu14v)

peso (Osu14v)
Simplex Hieroglyph
Spanish Loanword

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph represents a peso, the main Spanish unit of currency in sixteenth-century New Spain. It is round, painted blue, and it has a cross in the middle, suggesting that it is approved by the Spanish Crown.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The contextualizing image shows a 219 pesos and 6 tomines, and the text (which says it is 209 and 6) discusses how this was double the amount that the viceroy had ordered to be paid to the Nahuas for the bundles of grasses that they had had to provide the magistrates of the high court. The magistrates had failed to compensate the Nahuas’ labor. The text adds that the value of each load of fodder for the horses was half a real (i.e., half a tomin or 1/16 of a peso).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

ps.s

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

pesos

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Osuna, Codex (Osu)
Date of Manuscript: 

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Money, Coins, Prices
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bird's eye view
circle, circular or rounded
cross (+)
Keywords: 

dinero, pagar, compensar, trabajo, abusos, protesta, protesas, resistencia, colonialismo

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

peso, a peso, a Spanish coin, a loanword from Spanish, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/peso

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

un peso

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights: 

"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." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

peso (Osu10v)

tlaxtlahuilli (CST43)

pesos (FCbk10f22r)

peso (Chav1)