10/10/2023

Professor Peter Mack FBA (1955-2023) and Professor John O Ward (1940-2023)

ISHR mourns the sudden passing of former Rhetorica editor and friend to many in the Society Peter Mack, on Thursday October 5, 2023

Professor Peter Mack FBA (1955-2023)

ISHR mourns the sudden passing of former Rhetorica editor and friend to many in the Society Peter Mack, on Thursday October 5, 2023.

As his Warwick Department notes, Peter directed the Warburg Institute from 2010 to 2014 and was both Head of the Department of English & Comparative Literary Studies and Chair of the Faculty of Arts, besides being actively involved in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance. A Fellow of the British Academy and a leading authority on the English and European Renaissance, combining Shakespeare and Montaigne, his work and kindness touched everyone who met him, from students to colleagues, across various disciplines. His many books included Elizabethan Rhetoric: Theory and Practice (2002); Reading and Rhetoric in Montaigne and Shakespeare (2010); A History of Renaissance Rhetoric 1380-1620 (2011); and Rhetoric's Questions, Reading and Interpretation (2017)

Professor John O Ward (1940-2023)

ISHR also notes and mourns the passing of John Ward, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sidney, who passed away in April 2023.  A great scholar, John Ward was also for many years one of the most engaged and entertaining participants in ISHR’s biennial meetings, and likely the furthest travelled.

Jon Ward published Classical Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: The Medieval Rhetors and Their Art 400-1300, with Manuscript Survey to 1500 Ce in 2018.  A lovely tribute to him can be found on his Department’s website at https://historymatters.sydney.edu.au/2023/05/vale-john-o-ward/, where he is honoured inter alia as a “humorous utterer of unpalatable truths.”