[1] The codex is made of animal skin and consists of 16 leaves, each measuring approximately 27 x 21 cm; the total length of the manuscript is 4.42 m. Both sides of the codex are painted, but over time the condition of the paint has deteriorated, and one page seems to have been deliberately effaced, perhaps by a colonial official, as it bears a Spanish stamp.

The document is an important witness to the transition between Pre-Columbian times and the early colonial period in Mexico.

It describes a genealogy that comprises 26 different generations that have been estimated to have lived between 970 and 1490 AD; the men are shown wearing masks and crowns while the women are in generally depicted in a kneeling position.

The manuscript was probably made over a period of time by different hands in the Mixteca Baja region.

In 1869, it came into the possession of Felipe Sanchez Solis who sold it to Freiherr von Waecker-Gotter, a member of the German diplomatic corps in Mexico between 1880 and 1888.