A Rare Aztec Codex Detailing the Rise and Fall of Tenochtitlan Returns to Mexico for the First Time in Nearly Two Centuries

For the first time since 1840, an ancient book of pictograms telling the story of the rise and fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan has returned to Mexico. The centuries-old manuscript was displayed last week in Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), where it will remain for three months on loan from France. Officially known as the Azcatitlan Codex, the relic is considered one of the most prized visual accounts of Aztec history.

Created in the Valley of Mexico between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, its 50 folios combine European writing with Mesoamerican illustration to depict “the Mexica migration from Aztlán, the reigns of Tenochtitlan’s rulers, and the [Spanish] conquest and evangelization,” according to Mexico News Daily. A post shared by Secretaría de Cultura (@culturamx) Tenochtitlan, the site of modern-day Mexico City, was founded as the Aztec capital in 1325, after hunter-gatherers settled along the shores of Lake Texcoco. Guided by Montezuma II and bolstered by advanced agricultural techniques, the empire expanded quickly, reaching at its height as far south as modern-day Nicaragua and boasting a population of between five million and six million people.

In 1519, Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés arrived in Tenochtitlan with horses and guns. Two years later, the Aztec Empire fell. All of this history, and more, is documented in the codex.

Historians estimate that the codex was first held by the historian Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxóchitl, a descendant of Nezahualcóyotl, one of Texcoco’s most-renowned rulers. It passed through the hands of several scholars and libraries before being sold in Paris to the Franco‑Mexican collector Eugène Goupil, whose widow donated it to France’s National Library around 1898. Since then, it has been held by the French government, and both France and Mexico claim to be its rightful owner.

In 1982, a Mexican lawyer named Jose Luis Castaneda stole another manuscript, the Codex Tonalamatl, from France’s National Library and returned it to Mexico, where it remains today. Despite past tensions, the Mexican government will make no effort to reclaim the codex from France while it’s in Mexico City. The work’s temporary return is a symbolic gesture—the celebration of 200 years of Franco-Mexican diplomacy—made possible only through Mexico’s willingness to loan the Boturini Codex, another famed pictographic depiction of Aztec migration, to France for three months.

Inside the MNA, the original bound Azcatitlan Codex sits under protective glass, opened to pages that portray eight distinct Indigenous peoples organizing a search for Tenochtitlan, under the guidance of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun and war. Photographs of the remaining folios hang on nearby walls, surrounded by other archaeological artifacts, including codices, tools, textiles and pectorals. The centerpiece pages were chosen because they “allowed many other peoples to identify themselves, not just the Aztec people but seven other peoples as well,” Baltazar Brito Guadarrama, the museum’s director, tells El País.