PARIS.- A remarkable collection of Mesoamerican codices, the ancient illustrated books of Mexico, is now on display in Paris, offering a vibrant window into the pre-Hispanic world. The exhibition, "Codices: A Journey to the Heart of Pre-Hispanic Mexico," opened on June 30 at the House of Mexico in Paris and will run throughout July.

Organized by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the House of Mexico Foundation in Paris, the show features 11 high-quality facsimile reproductions of these invaluable documents. These codices, some predating the 16th-century Spanish conquest and others created in the hybrid style that emerged afterward, served as vital historical and cultural records for numerous Indigenous peoples.

Visitors can explore the rich details within these pages, which illuminate the religious practices, scientific knowledge, artistic traditions, and geopolitical landscapes of ancient Mexico. They offer a unique insight into how civilizations like the Mexica, Maya, Huejotzinca, and Mixtec viewed and interpreted their universe.

The opening event saw attendance from Blanca Jiménez Cisneros, Mexico's Ambassador to France; Tania Enriquez Mier, director of the House of Mexico in Paris; and Éric Martineau, Deputy and Vice-President of the Mexico-France Friendship Group of the National Assembly. Also present were Dominique Michelet, honorary research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and Baltazar Brito Guadarrama, director of Mexico's National Library of Anthropology and History (BNAH).

Brito Guadarrama, who curated the exhibition, noted the significance of the featured codices, including the Dresden, Matrícula de Tributos, and Boturini, among others. He specifically highlighted the inclusion of reproductions from the San Andrés Tetepilco Codices, which were recovered by the INAH in March 2024. Dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, these documents tell the story of their town's founding and its integration into the new viceregal order after the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, serving as a historical continuation of earlier codices.

Ambassador Jiménez and Tania Enríquez both commended INAH's dedicated efforts in the research and recovery of these cultural treasures, emphasizing their role in re-evaluating the history and cosmology of Mexico's Indigenous peoples.

"While sadly only a handful of the thousands of codices that once existed are known," Brito explained, "thanks to figures like Friar Bernardino de Sahagún and chroniclers Chimalpahin, Tezozómoc, and Ixtlilxóchitl, we know there were codices dedicated to religion, calendars, taxes, war, education, healing, astronomy, and even necromancy."

Today, INAH, in collaboration with other institutions and civil society, continues its ongoing work to recover, research, conserve, and share this crucial documentary heritage. The BNAH, for instance, holds over 200 Mexican codices under rigorous conservation, a collection recognized as Memory of the World by UNESCO since 1997. This places the BNAH and the National Library of France among the world's leading repositories for Mexican codices.

The exhibition's opening day also featured an academic discussion, "Cultural Heritage: A Historical Cooperation Between Mexico and France," where researchers and officials discussed the importance of binational collaboration in preserving shared cultural knowledge and ancestral expressions.