A rare 16th-century Aztec manuscript that documents the rise and fall of one of the Americas' greatest civilisations has gone on display in Mexico City for the first time in nearly two centuries. The Codex Azcatitlán, a vibrantly illustrated manuscript written shortly after the Spanish conquest, arrived at Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology on Thursday on loan from France's National Library, which has held it for more than a century. The loan marks a significant, if partial, victory for Mexico in its long campaign to recover cultural artefacts taken during the colonial era.

The codex, which fills 25 sheets of European parchment, tells the story of the Aztec — also known as Mexica — people through vivid pictograms rendered in reds, blues, greens and yellows. It traces the civilisation's origins from Aztlan, the mythical ancestral homeland, through the founding of Tenochtitlán — the city that would become modern-day Mexico City — and on to the Spanish conquest that ended the Aztec Empire and brought Christianity to the region. It is considered one of the most important surviving accounts of Aztec culture and history. The manuscript was brought to France in the mid-19th century by French researcher Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin and later donated to the National Library in 1898 by the widow of Franco-Mexican collector Eugène Goupil.

The temporary loan was agreed by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and French President Emmanuel Macron during Macron's visit to Mexico last year, as part of commemorations marking 200 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In exchange, Mexico has agreed to send the Codex Boturini — another prized manuscript narrating the Aztec migration story — to France for display there. The arrangement falls well short of what Mexico is seeking: Sheinbaum has pressed Macron to permanently return the Codex Azcatitlán along with the Codex Borbonicus, a manuscript representing Aztec divinatory and solar calendars kept at the library of France's National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament. Both French institutions insist they are the rightful owners of the manuscripts.

At the exhibition opening, emotion ran high among attendees, particularly members of Indigenous communities who have campaigned for the codex's restitution.