The codex was discovered in Spain in the 1860s; it was divided into two parts of differing sizes that were found in different locations.[7] The codex receives its alternate name of the Tro-Cortesianus Codex after the two parts that were separately discovered.[2] Early Mayanist scholar Léon de Rosny realised that both fragments were part of the same book.[14] The larger fragment, the Troano Codex, was published with an erroneous translation in 1869–1870 by French scholar Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg,[15] who found it in the possession of Juan de Tro y Ortolano in Madrid in 1866 and first identified it as a Maya book.[16] Ownership of the Troano Codex passed to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional ("National Archaeological Museum") in 1888.[6]