See an image that represents Tilma in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
auh huel patio in onicychtec, tomin, totoltin, tilmatli &c. = What I have stolen (money, domestic fowl, blankets, etc.) is costly.
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 139.
Tlen oticichtec? Cuix tomi[n]? Cuix tilmatli? Quaquahue, caballo, ychcame, totoltin, pitzome, noço ytla oc zentlamantli huel patio? = What have you stolen? Money? Blankets? Cattle, horses, sheep, domestic fowl, pigs, or some other thing of great value?
Bartolomé de Alva, A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language, 1634, eds. Barry D. Sell and John Frederick Schwaller, with Lu Ann Homza (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 111.
yn isquich yc otlatocat yn oquiman ymil ahu in icoac omic cuix ma oncan pouh yn tecpan cayyo ca onquiça ca ytech phui yn inpilhuan ahu in tlacalaquili yn tilmatli yhuan yn pisquitl. yn tlaolli cequi quitemaca cequi çan yc quicohua chalchihuitl. teocuitlatl x̶i̶h̶u̶i̶t̶l̶.̶ ahu in icoac omique ca ye intech povi. yn inpilhuan cuix ma oncan quicauhtihui in tecpan ca çan iuhqui y ye ypan netlayecoltilo tlatocayotl. = all that he ruled over, all the lands he took for himself, when he has died, belong to the palace alone; what belonged to his children has ended. And as to the tributes, the capes, and the harvest of shelled corn, [such rulers] give some to others; with some they buy precious green stones and gold. But when they have died, [these things] belong to their children. Did they leave them to the palace as if they were acquired for the realm? (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. 2, 190–191.
ça ichtilmahtzintli. anoço icçotilmahtzintli = poor maguey fiber cape or a wretched yucca fiber cape (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), 88.
amo tletitlan, anquintecazque Ça vel telmatzintli ytic anquintecazque = you will not lay them down in the fire; just lay them down in the blankets (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
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), 128–129.
telmatzintli quinmotemaquiliz = will give them blankets (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
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), 104–105.
yc nicnomaquilliya canel cenca ninotolliniya catle tleyn notech monequi ytlatzin yc nicnocohuiz aço tilmatzintli = I am very poor. For I don't have anything with which to buy any little thing I need, like clothing. (Coyoacan, 1609)
Rebecca Horn, Postconquest Coyoacan: Nahua-Spanish Relations in Central Mexico, 1519–1650 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), 160, 319.
quinmacato tlaçotilmatli, tlaçotlanqui, çan vel itech itilma in Motecuçoma, in aoc ac oc çe quiquemi, çan vel ineixcavil, vel itonal = They gave them precious cloaks, precious goods, the very cloaks pertaining to Moteucçoma which no one else could don, which were assigned to him alone. (central Mexico, 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), 56.
yuan centetl nepaniuhqui notilma monamacaz = And the plaited cloak of mine will be sold. (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 1, 44–45
tilmahtli = cape, cloak, or mantle -- Olko says this was, beyond doubt, the most important part of male apparel. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office: Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico (Warsaw: Polish Society for Latin American Studies and Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition, University of Warsaw, 2005), 102.
Examples of special kinds of capes: ehuatilmahtli = fur cape(s); oceloehuatilmahtli = jaguar skin cape(s); mazaehuatilmahtli = deer skin cape(s); xiuhtilmahtli tetlapal = turquoise blue cape with a red border; xiuhtilmahtli tenchilnahuayo = turquoise blue cape with a red border with circles; coatilmahtli = Snake cape; coatzontecomayo tilmahtli = the cape with the snake head design; cuauhtetepoyo tilmahtli = the cape with the eagle's head; cuauhtilmahtli = the eagle cape; ichcatilmahtli = cotton cape; ichtilmahtli = maguey fiber cape (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Justyna Olko, Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office: Elite Costume and Insignia of Power in Aztec and Early Colonial Mexico (Warsaw: Polish Society for Latin American Studies and Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition, University of Warsaw, 2005), 52, 184–191.
yn iuh mochiuh ompa. nauhtetl yn tilmatli. ytech tlacuilloli mopipillo, teopan = what happened there was painted on four cloths which were hung at the church (early seventeenth century, central New Spain) Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 64–65.
cloak (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Susan Kellogg, Law and the Transformation of Aztec Culture, 1500–1700 (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995), 227.
Ompa onquiza'n tlalticpac. Iquac mitoa in cenca ye titotolinia, in ayaxcan neci totech monequi, in tilmatzintli, in tlaqualtzintli = The world spills out. This is said when we are very poor, when hardly anything comes our way, such as mantles or food. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 110–111.
A long list of examples of specific tilmatli designs are found in Ch. 8 of Book 8 of the Florentine Codex. (SW)
This term was Hispanized as tilma. (SW)
In the Annals of Juan Bautista, we see "itilmatzin" used for his "hábito" in July 1564.
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 222–223.
hocan notzotzoma Çentetl tzomitl noCalçones yhuan Çe notzomitilma yhuan oc çen Çanon tzomitl notilma monamacaz = I have clothing, a pair of trousers of wool, a woolen cloak, and another cloak likewise of wool, that are to be sold (1644, Mexico City)
Jonathan Truitt, Sustaining the Divine in Mexico Tenochtitlan: Nahuas and Catholicism, 1523–1700 (Oceanside, CA: The Academy of American Franciscan History; Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), 247, 252.Icçotilmaxixipetztli = finely woven yucca fiber capes (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), 6.niman ie ic quioalmoxelhuia, ontzontli concui in quachtli tenochca: auh no ontzontli concui in tlatilulca: auh in quachtli niman ic mocoa in tlatocatilmatli ihuitica tetecomaio, ioan xaoalquauhiotilmatli, ioan ihuitica tenoaoanqui, ioan tlatocamastlatl iacauiac, ioan tlamachcueitl, tlamachhuipilli. Jnĩ tlatquitl uel iscoian, iasca, in Auitzotzin = Those of Tenochtitlan took eight hundred large cotton capes, and also those of Tlatiluco took eight hundred. And with the large cotton capes were then bought the rulers’ capes, feathered in cup-shaped designs, and those of eagle face designs, and striped on the borders with feathers; and rulers’ breech clouts with long ends; and embroidered skirts [and] shifts. This clothing was verily and the exclusive property of Auitzotzin [which the merchants carried to Anauac]. (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), 8.