See an image that represents amatl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
PAPER AND RITUAL
"...a length of straw with paper knots was 'a ladder for descending into hell' for his deceased offspring; a piece of bark paper tied to the straw was the ladder's runner; finally, two small straw brooms he had made were for sweeping the place where they would place an offering of tamales and a skewered rabbit for the nourishment of his dead son and daughter." Part of a testimony from an inquisitorial proceeding for activities in Epazoyucan in 1572.
David Tavárez, The Invisible War: Indigenous Devotions, Discipline, and Dissent in Colonial Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011), 69.
nimã quicuaja yn iezço caxtica, yoã aço amatl contlaçaia in caxic, quichichinaltiaya y eztlj = They then collected the blood in a bowl and perhaps cast a paper into the bowl, which absorbed the blood. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 74.
yc niman ye quitlani amatl, ytztli, niman ye quihtohua in Mexica, çan tiquinnacaztlaztihui yn tomallhuan ompa yn inyeccampa = at once they asked for paper and obsidian. Then the Mexica said: We shall just remove our captives’ ears, those on their right side. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 204–205.
in amatl in copalli yoã in tlemaytl in ie isquich ytech monequiz tzapotlacatl yn icoac miquia ypã tepeilvitl. = the papers, the copal, and the incense ladle everything that was required when [the impersonator of] the Lord of Zapotlan died. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 92.
In axcan ma xoiatiuh in vnpa omjtzamapouh, in vnpa omjtzcopalpouh in monantzin, in motatzin in calmecac, in choqujzcali, in jxaiocali, in tlaoculcali, in vncan mopitza, momamali: in vncan xotla, cueponj in tepilhoan: in vncan cozcateuh, quetzalteuh motemanilia, motevipanjlia in totecujo in tloque, naoaque: in vncan moteicnoittilia, in vncan motepepenjlia in jpalnemoa = Now go where thy mother, thy father have dedicated thee with paper, with incense, to the calmecac, the house of weeping, the house of tears, the house of sadness, where the sons of noblemen are cast, are perforated; where they bud, where they blossom; where like precious necklaces, like precious feathers they are placed, ordered by our lord, the lord of the near, of the nigh; where he by whom we live showeth compassion, where he selecteth one (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 214.
"they drew together the legs of the dead man, and wrapped him all over with paper called amatl" (Valley of Mexico, 1570–1587)
The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 70.
Auh in oioac, in oacic tlatlapizalizpan: niman ie ic quipeoaltia in amaxotla, achtopa quitequia in itech poui in tletl, quitoaia xiuhtecutli, tlalxictẽtica = And when night had fallen, when the time of blowing shell trumpets arrived, thereupon they began cutting lengths of paper. First they cut what pertained to the fire [god], whom they called Xiuhtecutli [or] Tlalxictentica. (16th century, Mexico City)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 9—The Merchants, trans. Charles E. Dubble and Arthur J.O. Anderson (Santa Fe, New Mexico; The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1959), 9.
Auh in nanaoatzin, çan amatl, inic conquailpique: contzonilpique, itoca iamatzon: yoan iamaneapanal, yoan iamamastli. = But [as for] Nanauatzin, they bound on his headdress of mere paper and tied on his hair, called his paper hair. And [they gave him] his paper stole and his paper breech clout. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 7 -- The Sun, Moon, and Stars, and the Binding of the Venus, No. 14, Part VIII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 5.
qujmamatlapaltia, amatl (quimamatlapaltia, amatl) = they gave them paper wings (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, no. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 43.
Auh ynnovian calpan, in techachan: yoan in tetelpuchcalco, in cacalpulco, noujian qujquetzaia, matlaquauhpitzaoac, tzonioquauhtl, itech qujtlatlaliaia amateteujtl, vltica tlaulchipinilli, tlavlchachapatztli. = And everywhere, in the houses, in each home, in each of the quarters where the young warriors were trained, and in each tribal temple, everywhere they erected the slender green poles; on them, they placed white paper flags dotted with large and small drops of liquid rubber. (sixteenth century, central Mexico)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2 -- The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 42.
auh niman ye quihuica holli copalli. amatl. xochitl. in yetl. yhuan yn itoca tlacatlaqualli. ye quitlamanilizque yn teotl = And then he took rubber, copal incense, paper, flowers, tobacco, and what are called abstinence foods with which they were to make offerings to the god. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 96–97.
niman iehoatl quitequi, in itech poui tlalli, quitoaia tlaltecutli, amatica tlaelilpilli; no oltica quitentia, quiiacatia, quistelolotia: no iuhquin tlaca tlachie = Then they cut the [paper] which pertained to the earth [god], whom they called Tlaltecutli. He was bound about the chest with paper; also with liquid rubber they gave him lips, nose, eyes. He also resembled a man. (16th century, Mexico City)
Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex, Book 9—The Merchants, trans. Charles E. Dubble and Arthur J.O. Anderson (Santa Fe, New Mexico; The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1959), 9.
auh in iquezpan quimamanticatca iacatecpaio: in iezpan çan amatl = And at his hips he carried his blood banner, just of paper. (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 128, 130.
PAPER AND LITERACY
Maҫol Itechpa mjtoa: intla tlacujtivetzi, aҫo temacuex, aҫo teamauh, anoҫo itla oc centlamantli cana mopia, vmpa concujtivetzi, intlanel tanaco, intlanel noҫo canjn: in vmpa mopia in itla pialonj = Old hand. It is said of one if he seizes either one's bracelets or one's book, or something else guarded somewhere. He seizes it from there, even though in a basket, or no matter where, there where is guarded something worthy of being guarded (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1961), 223.
otictlalique yni amatl ypan yni xihuitl de 1521 = We have set down the book in the year of 1521. (Tepetlaoztoc, sixteenth century)
Barbara J. Williams and H. R. Harvey, The Códice de Santa María Asunción: Facsimile and Commentary: Households and Lands in Sixteenth-Century Tepetlaoztoc (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1997), 71.
nāmauh = my paper
Michel Launey, An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, translated and adapted by Christopher MacKay (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 92.
yn yecnemiliznemachtilizamatl = the book teaching proper living (scripture)
Andrés Sáenz de la Peña, Manual de los Santos Sacramentos, 1643, f. 35r.; translation by Mark Z. Christensen, "Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Ecclesiastical Texts and Local Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan," Ph.D. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 2010, Appendix E, 16.
ye quitta yn amatl = is looking at a page (late sixteenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 45.
auh mochintin ynin que teteuctin amo omazicamat ynin tlachihualiz. Ypanpa inícuac ocalla que yncaxtilteca mochí opolíuhque ynín tlacuilol Amahuan = But the accomplishments of all these lords are not found in the painted books. (When the Spaniards entered, they destroyed all these books.)
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 26.
yn aquin amamatl quimati Amapan quitoz yn ixquich ycuiliuhtica ypan oras = He who knows how to read will speak from the document all that is written in the book of hours.
Fray Alonso de Molina, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahuatl Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM, ed. and trans., Barry D. Sell (Berkeley: Academy of American Franciscan History, 2002), 112–113.
auh tla itla amatl nesitihu Cacmo neltocos ica Ca huel nestica ipan in huehue testamento Ca tlalcohuali ihuan totlalnemac = And if any paper should appear it is not to be believed, since it well appears in the old will that it is purchased land and our land by gift. (Azcapotzalco, 1738)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 17, 102–103.
ypan Amal de poSeSion = in the document of possession (San Pedro Calimaya, Toluca Valley, 1763)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 200.
amatl tlaquiloli motocallotia Carta de Benta escriptura tlalnamaquilistli = a letter, a piece of writing called a Bill of Sale, a document of land sale (Toluca, 1756)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 17, ff. 1r.–3r.
James Lockhart [personal communication] says that the translation "document" is sometimes less appropriate than "letter," since the term documento was not used much in this context, and many documents were called cartas.
tlatocaamatl = ruler papers
See, for example, Techialoyan manuscript number 716 -- bibliographic information to be found in the Robertsons' catalog in the Handbook of Middle American Indians (1975).
ma quimatican yn yxquichtin quitazque ynin amatl = may all who see this document know it; (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1654)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 136.
se amatl mopixtica = a document is preserved (Mexico, sixteenth-century)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 138.
amatzintli yn tlaneltilis = the papers to verify (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1654)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 138.
ynin amal y nomemoria destamento = this document, my memorandum of testament (San Pablo Tepemaxalco, Toluca Valley, 1681)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 148.
MISCELLANEOUS PAPER REFERENCES
ioan iztac quauhamatl = and white paper made of the bark of trees (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 68.
auh ynjn amatl catca quaoamatl, amo texamatl: ynic tilaoac cenmapilli: auh ynjc patlaoac cenmatl: auh ynjc vijac cempoalmatl = And this was a paper, white paper and not yellow paper, a finger thick, a fathom wide, and twenty fathoms long. (sixteenth century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 69.