PARIS: The return of two centuries-old manuscripts from France to Mexico dominated talks during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Latin American country on Friday. But the request, as expected, met headwinds.

At the heart of the discussions are two manuscripts illustrating Indigenous Mex­ican life: the Codex Borbonicus, kept at the library of French National Assembly, and the Codex Azcatitlan, which is part of France’s National Library collection.

“Our main interest is the return of these codices, which are very important to Mexico,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum last month.

Mexican manuscripts, generally referred to as codices by researchers. include both pictographic and alphabetical narrations of the history, rituals and beliefs of the people of present-day Mexico before and after the arrival of Spanish colonisers in the 16th century.

The Codex Borbonicus gets its name from the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the French parliament’s lower house, where it has been preserved since the 19th century.

It represents the “divinatory and solar calendars” of the Mexica civilisation, a dominant Indigenous population in pre-Hispanic Mexico, according to the French culture ministry.

The Codex Azcatitlan narrates the history of the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan “from the migration from the mythical Aztlan to the fall of the Mexica empire at the hands of the Spanish and their Indigenous allies in 1521”, according to the Memorica site, a platform to preserve and share the country’s heritage.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2025