Mathilde Alain
'The Christian kingdom of Ethiopia in the travel diary of Francisco Álvares (1520-1526)' (provisional title)
I am a third year PhD candidate in Cotutelle between the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at Warwick and the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance at Tours, co-supervised by Natalya Din-KariukiLink opens in a new window, Nathalie BoulouxLink opens in a new window and Paul BotleyLink opens in a new window.
My doctoral project, 'The Christian kingdom of Ethiopia in the travel diary of Francisco Álvares (1520-1526)' (provisional title), funded by the Chancellor's International Scholarship, aims to provide a detailed analysis of Álvares' travel account. I study the text's transmission, a central question as the original manuscript – presumably Portuguese – has been lost. I also look at the 1520-1526 Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia, recounted by Álvares and finally, the reception of the account in Portugal, Italy and Europe.
I am interested in the following:
- History of travels and travel accounts to and from Africa (with a focus on the 15th-16th centuries)
- History of Ethiopian-Portuguese relations (embassies)
- History of fifteenth/sixteenth-century Ethiopia
- History of the perception of Africa in Renaissance Europe
My research also touches upon fields such as the history of the books and libraries, diplomatic history, connected and global history. Apart from the Renaissance, I am involved in the transcription and study of the nineteenth-century French explorer Antoine d'Abbadie's notebooks about Ethiopia, a research project led by Anaïs Wion and Vanessa Desclaux.
Contact
Email: mathilde.alain@warwick.ac.uk
Publications
- '‘Dicono li Ethiopi’: Ethiopian contributions to Francisco Álvares’s travel account to Ethiopia (c. 1540)', MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 18 (2024), pp. 5-14.
- ‘“Este, dizem, corre ao longo do Nilo”. Le Nil dans le récit de Francisco Álvares (1520-1526)’, Annales islamologiques 57 (2023): 99-126.
- 'The travel account of Francisco Álvares: Ethiopian-European relations in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century' (Global history and culture centre in Warwick blog post)
- Noter, classer, utiliser : les carnets de voyage d'Antoine d'Abbadie en ÉthiopieLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, Sources. Material & Fieldwork in African Studies 3, 2021.
- Anaïs Wion, Vanessa Desclaux, Mathilde Alain, 'Les carnets d'Ethiopie d'Antoine d'Abbadie', Chroniques de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2021, 92, pp.42-43.
Selected conferences and seminars
- Renaissance Society of America: 'Writing, translating, rearranging: the traveller's self and Italian scholars in Alvares' account of Ethiopia (c. 1540)' (22 March 2024, Chicago)
- Seminar: 'Monuments et documents de l'Afrique ancienne : recherches en cours en histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie' (22 December 2023, Paris), talk: 'Étudier et utiliser le récit de voyage de Francisco Álvares en Éthiopie : méthodologie, sources et pistes de recherche (XVIe siècle)'
- Study day:'Dans les carnets d'un savant-voyageur en Ethiopie : Transcrire et éditer les carnets d'Antoine d'Abbadie (mi-XIXe s.)' (22-23 November 2023, BnF, Paris), paper title: 'D’Alvares à Combes et Tamisier : les lectures d’Antoine d’Abbadie et la constitution d’un savoir savant sur l’Éthiopie'
- Conference: 'L'empire des sens. Vers un paysage sensoriel à la Renaissance' (1-2 June 2023, Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours), paper title: 'Une expérience sensorielle de l'Ethiopie chrétienne au XVIe siècle : le récit de voyage de Francisco Alvares'
- Conference: 'Ethiopians abroad in the Middle Ages' (23-26 May 2023, Ecole française de Rome), paper title: 'Este frade andara em Itália e sabia algum tanto de latim: Ethiopians abroad and Francisco Álvares’ travel account'
- Seminar: 'Transcribing and editing the notebooks of Antoine d'Abbadie (1837-1848): the use of Digital Humanities' with Vanessa Desclaux and Anaïs Wion (11 November 2022, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Addis Ababa)
- Seminar: 'Transcribing the notebooks of Antoine d'Abbadie (1837-1848): at the crossroads of scientific, technical and ethical issues' with Vanessa Desclaux and Anaïs Wion (3 November 2022, Centre Français des Etudes Ethiopiennes, Addis Ababa)
- Workshop: 'Penser et écrire une histoire des connexions entre les royaumes chrétiens d'Ethiopie et de Kongo et la Méditerranée médiévale et moderne' for the project ETHIOKONGMED (11-12-13 July 2022, Ecole française de Rome), paper title: 'Une ambassade portugaise à la cour du souverain éthiopien : le récit de Francisco Álvares (1520-1526)'
- 64th International Conference in Humanistic Studies: Music in Africa and its Diffusion in the Early Modern World (1300-1650), paper title: 'Le paysage musical et sonore au royaume Chrétien d’Éthiopie dans le récit de voyage de Francisco Álvares (1520-1526)' (Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours, 27 June- 1 July 2022)
- Study day: 'Identity, culture and language in the pre-modern world (c. 500-1700): interactions and exchanges' - CMRC Study day - , paper title: 'A Portuguese embassy at the royal court of Ethiopia: the travel account of Francisco Alvares (1520)', (31 May 2022, University of Southampton)
- Co-organisation of a workshop with Vanessa Desclaux & Anaïs Wion: "1er transcrithon des carnets scientifiques d’Antoine d’Abbadie en Éthiopie (1840-1852)Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window" (July 7 2021, Campus Condorcet); paper title: 'Les carnets d'Antoine d'Abbadie'
Education and Professional Development
2020-2021: research assistant at the French National Library (Paris) for a research project about the notebooks of Antoine d’Abbadie who travelled to Ethiopia (1838-1848), with Vanessa Desclaux & Anaïs Wion (a presentation of the project in FrenchLink opens in a new window)
2018-2020: MA in History (Renaissance Studies), Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours)
2019-2020: Erasmus at the University of Coimbra (Portugal)
2015-2018: Bachelor in History, University of Tours (France)
2017-2018: Erasmus year at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim, Norway)
Teaching
- 2024: Seminar Tutor for the class 'Travel in the Renaissance' part of the module for second and third year undergraduates: 'Renaissance Europe II: Movement, Revolution, and Conflict' (term 2, 2h lecture and seminar) - University of Warwick.
- 2023: Seminar Tutor for the class 'Geographical Discoveries' with Natalya Din-Kariuki, part of the module for second and third year undergraduates: 'Renaissance Europe II: Movement, Revolution, and Conflict' (term 2, 2h lecture and seminar) - University of Warwick.
- 2022: Chargée de Travaux Dirigés (seminar tutor) in History for second-year undergraduates: 'Transferts culturels XII-XVe siècles' ('Cultural transfers 12-15th centuries') (term 1,18h) - University of Tours.
- 2022: Chargée de Travaux Dirigés (seminar tutor) in History for first-year undergraduates: 'Techniques documentaires' (methodology classes to search primary and secondary sources) (term 1,18h) - University of Tours.
Other activities
- Member of the ANR project ETHIOKONGROME 'Les chrétiens d’Éthiopie et de Kongo face à Rome : écrire une autre histoire des connexions entre l’Afrique et l’Europe' (led by Olivia Adankpo-Labadie)(2024-2027)
- Team member of the project 'Mss Abbadie' co-led by Anaïs Wion (CNRS) and Vanessa Desclaux (BnF)
- Organizer of the CSR's reading group about Montaigne's travel diary to Italy (2023) and co-organizer of the CSR's reading group about Montaigne's Essays with Iván Parga Ornelas (2022-2023)
- Member of the Work in Progress committee, organized by the History Department of Warwick (2022/2023)
- Vice-secretary of the ADCESR (Association of the PhD Students of the CESR, Tours) (2022-2023)
- SSLC representative for the PGR students for the CSR (2023)
- Member of the Society for Renaissance Studies, member of the Royal Historical Society