The Codex Azcatitlán, a significant pictographic manuscript documenting Aztec civilization and its encounter with Spanish conquistadors, has arrived in Mexico for public display at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City beginning this week. The document, believed to have been created in the 16th century following the arrival of conquistadors, has been housed at France’s Bibliothèque Nationale since 1898, though it spent considerable time outside Mexico prior to that.
The loan of the codex to Mexico represents a cultural exchange between the two nations to commemorate 200 years of Franco-Mexican relations. As part of the arrangement, Mexico has agreed to lend the Codex Boturini to France for exhibition there. The Codex Boturini contains pictographic narratives depicting the migration of the Aztecs, also known as the Mexica people, from their original homeland to Lake Texcoco, where they established the city of Tenochtitlán.
The temporary exchange was formalized through an agreement between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and French President Emmanuel Macron during Macron’s visit to Mexico last year. The arrangement aligns with Mexico’s broader efforts to recover historical artifacts that left the country during colonial and subsequent periods. According to Mexico’s ministry of foreign relations, more than 2,000 objects were successfully repatriated in the previous year as part of ongoing repatriation initiatives.
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