From “Illustrative Vignettes” to a Third Narrative: Keywords Applied to Images of the Florentine Codex

One of the objectives of the Florentine Codex Digital Initiative is to make available high-resolution images of the codex and translations of the Nahuatl and Spanish columns into English. And for the first time, to make the images searchable. The project's creation of keywords to describe and tag images will enable scholars to carry out precise work on different pictorial strategies, some of which I outline in this presentation. I examine semiotic conventions, such as visual "diphrases" or couplets (difrasismos in Spanish) and the inclusion of semantic and phonetic signs within complex images, which mix visual descriptions and textual elements. Rather than simple vignettes, these conventions represent the art and creativity of the colonial tlahcuilohqueh (artists/writers) who created narratives through images.