mat Workshop 2026

THIRD  INTERNATIONAL “MAT CONFERENCE 2026”

“Mapping and Translating Spaces, Cultures and Languages. The Missions Connected to the Portuguese Empire (1540-1700)”

Rome, Sapienza Università di Roma - CNR, 29 - 30 January 2026

This conference formally marked the conclusion of the project’s activities and aimed to consolidate several key themes that had emerged over the previous two years of research, bringing together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds with a view to producing a collective publication. The conference examined missionary encounters within the Portuguese Empire (1540–1700) through a series of thematic panels exploring practices of mapping, linguistic mediation, and cultural translation. Particular attention was devoted to the translation of religious and cultural concepts across languages, scripts, and media, including forms of visual translation through images, objects, and material culture. The panels addressed themes such as cartographic representations of space, the role of indigenous intermediaries and clergy, the interaction between different writing systems, and the development of missionary linguistic tools.

Regional case studies focusing on China, Africa, and the Atlantic world further highlighted how mapping and translation—both textual and visual—functioned as key mechanisms of intercultural exchange in the early modern global context.

The event:

gathered 24 scholars from 5 different countries;

engaged researchers from different disciplines—historians, linguists, and art historians;

explored in greater depth one of the two core foci of the project, namely Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Book of Abstracts is registered on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18255435) and is available in open access via the project portal, ensured immediate digital dissemination and long-term accessibility:

The conference presentations were recorded and are currently undergoing post-production and video editing in preparation for their open-access dissemination as YouTube videos on the Sapienza and CNR ISEM channels. They will shortly be made available in the “Recordings” section of the project website
https://sites.google.com/uniroma1.it/mapping-translating-prin22-cnr/recordings?authuser=0

Editorial Output

A selection of the papers presented at the conference will be included in the project’s final volume, currently under editorial negotiation with Brill (series Translating Cultures in the Early Modern World, edited by Giancarlo Casale, José María Pérez Fernández, Giovanni Tarantino, and Ann Thomson) or with Routledge (series Multilingualism, Lingua Franca and Translation in the Early Modern Period, edited by Karen Bennett).