30 May 2025 / 10 House
Article suitable for Top Juniors and above
Find out moreWhat’s the ruler’s dress called?
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Anna Furphy: Do you know what is the name of the white dress that the Huey Tlatoani and other emperors used to wear? I am refering to the white cloth tied on their shoulder. I am following the first page of the Mendoza Codex. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
Yes! The famous page you refer to in the Codex Mendoza (actually it’s page 2) shows the founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica and contains a wealth of information on the city’s early history. Clearly shown - and named - are 10 of the the city’s founding dignitories, led by the warrior-priest Tenoch (the only one sitting, centre left, on a woven petate mat and with a speech glyph).
They are all identically dressed, seated in the traditional Aztec male posture, wearing a white tilmatli ‘tightly wrapped about drawn-up legs’. Professor Manuel Aguilar-Moreno gives a full description of the tilmatli in his book Handbook to Life in the Aztec World:-
‘The tilmatli was also a draped garment and allowed the Aztec male individual the most opportunity for displaying wealth, status and rank. The tilmatli was a mantle that acted as a cape or cloak worn around the shoulders and the entire individual’s figure; a large tilmatli was called a quachtli (usually made of cotton). In the winter, a duck-feathered mantle provided warmth...
‘When the Aztec male sat on the ground, he pulled the tilmatli around his shoulders to cover his body and legs. Depending on the owner’s class, it was tied either over the righ shoulder (commoner) or in front so that the knot lay over the breastplate (noble). Typically, the tilmatli and the quachtli were worn as garments; however, during the winter, these garments covered beds in the household. Each commoner owned two or three; nobles probably owned many more. The importance of the tilmatli to the Aztec wardrobe proved so vital that this garment was traded as currency. Slaves could be bought for 30 quachtli; slaves who could sing and dance could be bought for 40 quachtli.
‘The Aztec government dicatated rigid laws regarding how the tilmatli could be worn. Commoners could only wear the tilmatli to their knees; warriors could wear the tilmatli to their ankles only if they had wounded their legs in battle and needed to protect themselves from further harm. Otherwise, noblemen and rulers alone could wear the tilmatli to their ankles.’
Information from -
• Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Facts on File, New York, 2006
• The Essential Codex Mendoza by Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt, University of California Press, London, 1997
Picture sources:-
Scanned from our copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition of the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian LIbrary, Oxford), London
Comments (3)
Bryant Arrizon
12th Nov 2024
Do you happen to know if the symbols on each of the garment mean, are they of any significance? Do they signify that one is a noble or pochtecatl from tlatoani
Mexicolore
You’re referring to the four Generals in the bottom ‘register’ (row) of this page from the Codex Mendoza (the top row shows four Constables). The symbols on their capes don’t specifically indicate noble or commoner. We can’t find sources that go into great detail on the meaning of each symbol. Here we can only say a) what they are b) the more elaborate the design on the cape the higher the status of the individual wearing it. The first wears a ‘Jewel of Ehecatl’ (wind god) symbol. The second is blank. The third wears a ‘Two-Rabbit pulque vessel’ cape, and the fourth features two concentric circles.
These four individuals, incidentally, could be members of the Emperor’s so-called Council of Four. Their roles seems to have combined military general, constable and executioner.
Christina Andrade
28th Aug 2011
Thank you! I’ve been looking for information as my husband wishes to portray an Aztec persona in the SCA.
Anna Furphy
3rd Sep 2009
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for your enlightment explanation. It is going to help me a lot within a short story that I am writing. I would like to send it to you.
Thanks again, Anna
Mexicolore
You’re welcome, Anna. Yes, please send us the finished piece!
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