In May 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Mexico City. It was Macron’s first official visit to Mexico, and was an important step in Mexico’s recent attempts to bolster trade relations with Europe. While much of the meeting focused on economic relations between the countries, Sheinbaum also announced that France and Mexico agreed to temporarily exchange a pair of handwritten codices. The Codex Azcatitlán, housed in Paris’s Bibliothèque Nationale de France, will travel to Mexico City, while the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia will loan its Codex Boturini to Paris. Due to conservation concerns, neither are frequently on view in their respective libraries, and they rarely travel, according to The Art Newspaper. Related Articles Both pre-Hispanic illustrated manuscripts tell the story of the Aztecs’ migration to Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City). The Italian historian for whom the 16th century Codex Boturini is named was forced to leave the manuscript behind when he left what was then known as “New Spain”; it has remained in Mexico since 1825. Mexico has …