IIIF for Educators

The Third Text

💡 Concept

In his article, "Three Texts in One: Book XII of the Florentine Codex," Kevin Terraciano identifies the Florentine Codex as an outstanding example of graphic pluralism. He explains:

The indigenous texts represent new (alphabetic) and older (pictorial) forms of indigenous expression that coexisted and shared space with Castilian-language writing. The format and organization were European in many ways, but the content was multicultural (53-54).

Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, project leads of the Getty Research Institute's Digital Florentine Codex initiative, build on Terraciano's concept of the "Three Texts" of the Florentine Codex.  In "Introducing the Florentine Codex (1575–77) and Its Three Narratives"Links to an external site. Richter and Houtrouw write about the "third" text, neither Spanish nor Nahuatl, but visual, with hybrid meanings and traditions:

In addition to the two texts, the images provide a third source of information that complements and augments the alphabetic texts. Like the texts, these images are transcultural, combining European and Mexica pictorial traditions, as well as Nahuatl pictographic writing.

🖥️ Activity

The Digital Florentine Codex is an online "digital edition" of the Florentine Codex produced at the Getty Research Institute by a team of scholars, designers, and technologists. It was created with explicit intent to make the various complex channels of communication, visual, verbal, and pictographic accessible to researchers and students. We will explore this remarkable resource, and learn some of its sophisticated features for scholarly use. Then we will extract its underlying resource, the image facsimiles of the codex, for close inspection of visual information, and share-out. This Canvas discussion-based lab activity will support our active engagement with embedded tools and instructions. 

👓 Examples

Feather / Ihhuitl
Consider the example of The Feather in the Digital Florentine Codex  (click to open and close)

As vocabulary in the digital edition, "feather" and one of its Nahuatl translations "ihhuitl" can be searched for either Text or Image returns. Depending upon which you select, nearly all books in the Florentine Codex are represented in the returns, and the variety of content associated with these search terms is astounding. It is easy to see, in this sense, how pervasive feathers are in Nahua history and culture. Here, the profession of feather seller as two types serves as a kind of metaphor for people in general. 

The feather seller

The feather seller is a feather worker, a merchant-the man [with] the basket.

The good feather seller [is] a gentle worker-one who esteems [his wares], who is dedicated. He sells various feathers-precious feathers; he sells fine green feathers, chili-green feathers, those curved at the tip, the feathers of young birds. He sells [feathers] of the trogonorous, the troupial, the blue cotinga.

The bad feather worker [is] a [fraudulent] embellisher of feathers, a treater of feathers with glue. He sells old, worn feathers, damaged feathers. He dyes feathers; he dyes those which are faded, dirty, yellow, darkened, smoked.

 

Explore

Now look for yourself at some of the entries, and follow links to related terms below any image you view:

🧱 Materials

🪜 Steps

Step 1
Read and browse selections from the DFC site  (click to open and close)

1. Read: Kevin Terraciano, "Three Texts in One: Book XII of the Florentine Codex" (posted on Canvas)
2. Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw. "Introducing the Florentine Codex (1575–77) and Its Three Narratives" on the DFC Resourses Page
3. Review and consider Example of feather
4. Use browse and keywords in the DFC site to explore other terms and images that interest you
5. Follow leads to identify new terms and themes to investigate

Step 2
View and Crop Book 12 imagery outside the DFC site  (click to open and close)

Mirador Viewer 
Use this tool to find items from the DFC in Book 12, using Book and Folio numeration   (click to open and close)

1. 1. Click the Mirador icon at the bottom of Volume 3 of the Digital Florentine Codex in Materials
   2. Copy a IIIF manifest URI
   3. For comparative viewing of 2 or more items, check the selection box for each, and click the Mirador icon in the upper left corner
   4. Item windows can be dragged into different configurations using their header bar
   5. Zoom in and out, click through pages, and acquaint yourself to the many viewing settings, including thumbnail, single page, etc.

IIIF Cropping Tool
Use this tool to select details for sharing  (click to open and close)

1. 1. Click the crop icon at the bottom of any volume of the Digital Florentine Codex in Materials
   2. Zoom and view the item 
   3. To crop a detail from the image, click the white pencil icon, and highlight the desired portion by clicking and dragging a rectangle from corner to corner
   4. A thumbnail of your selected detail will appear in a slider at the bottom of the Cropping Tool. You can repeat to collect multiple details.
   5. Click the copy icon on any detail thumbnail you would like to share in the discussion post

Step 3
Share selections  (click to open and close)

• Click Reply
• Paste your image detail 
• Comment and add DFC location information (Book and folio number) 

✉️ Share

Select one image or image detail that you want to share with the class. Submit a reply to this discussion forum with that image and a brief comment:

• what you think the image shows
• why you think it is important
• how it might reflect indigenous points of view

 Make a note of the folio (page) number so you or others can find it again in the DFC site.

Submit by [date, time]

🤝 Collaborate

We will collaborate in our groups during class.

1. Choose an image from Book 12 on the Conquest of Mexico that is relevant to your group's research topic. Crop and share the image. Write a brief description of the image and then analyze the image for its significance: why is it important? how does it reflect an indigenous view of the conquest?
2. Working in your groups, review and discuss your posts. Select one to share out with the class.

Submit by [date, time]