Biography
Peter Howard is Emeritus Professor at Australian Catholic University, where he served as Director of the Institute of Religion and Critical Inquiry (2019–2023). Previously, he was a member of the history program at Monash University, Melbourne (1996–2018), where he was founding Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (2012–2019), Convener of the Prato Consortium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (2010–2019), and Director of the Body in the City 1100–1800 research program (2016–2019). He also held senior academic leadership roles, including Deputy and Interim Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2013-2017) at Monash University. Earlier in his career, he lectured in church history at the University of Divinity, Melbourne (1986–1997). He has been a Fellow and also Visiting Professor at Villa I Tatti: The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, a Fellow of the European University Institute, Florence, and a visiting scholar at the Istituto per le scienze religiose, Bologna. In 2023 he co-chaired with Brendan Wolfe (University of St Andrews) the Sixth Annual Conference of the European Academy of Religion at the University of St Andrews and has facilitated co-operation between ACU and St Andrews. He has been awarded several Australian Research Council grants, most recently for his project on the fifteenth-century frescoes of the Sistine Chapel (2019-2026). His contribution to higher education and pedagogy was recognized by awards from Monash University in undergraduate teaching (including 2012 Vice-Chancellor's Award and medal), honours supervision (2017 Vice-Chancellor's Award), and postgraduate supervision (2009 Faculty Award).
Research Areas
Peter Howard is a historian of Renaissance Italy and medieval thought, preaching, and of historical theology more broadly, with a particular interest in developing new approaches to the study of culture, especially its religious and theological dimensions and its visual and oral/aural performative forms.
Selected and recent publications
Theologies of the Piazza: Experiencing Religion in Renaissance Florence
Howard, P., in preparation. London: Routledge.
‘Prédication et rhétorique dans la Florence de la Renaissance’
Howard, P., forthcoming in 2027, in Exercices de Rhétorique.
Before Michelangelo: Revisioning Sixtus’s Sistine Chapel as sensorium
Howard, P. (Editor) & Kuziow, S. (Editor), forthcoming 2026. Turnhout: Brepols, Art and the Sacred Series.
‘Introduction: Revisioning Sixtus IV’s Sistine Chapel as Sensorium’
Howard, P., forthcoming 2026, , in Before Michelangelo: Revisioning Sixtus’s Sistine Chapel as sensorium, ed. by Peter Howard and Shannon Kuziow. Turnhout: Brepols, Art and the Sacred Series.
‘Envisioning Sixtus’s Sistine Chapel as sermo modernus’
Howard, P., forthcoming 2026, Before Michelangelo: Revisioning Sixtus’s Sistine Chapel as sensorium, ed. by Peter Howard and Shannon Kuziow. Turnhout: Brepols, Art and the Sacred Series, chapter 3.
‘L’alfabetizzazione biblica dei fiorentini nel XV secolo'
Howard, P., forthcoming 2026, La Porta del Paradiso. Bibbia, Battesimo, Istoria, Verdon, T., Fabbri, L. & Serafini, G. (eds.). Rome: Casa Editrice Viella.
‘“Aptum ad praedicandum”: The Reception and Transformation of Scholastic Thinking in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2025, The Brill Companion to Renaissance Scholasticism, Edelheit, A. (ed.). Leiden: Brill, p. 35-66 32 p.
‘Theology in Australia’
Howard, P., 2024. St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, Wolfe, B.N. et al. (eds.), https://www.saet.ac.uk/Christianity/TheologyinAustralia
Renaissance Religions: Modes and Meanings in History
Howard, P. (Editor), Saccenti, R. (Editor), & Terpstra, N. (Editor), 2021. Turnhout: Brepols. 400 p.
‘Approaching Renaissance Religions’
Howard, P., 2021., Renaissance Religions: Modes and Meanings in History, Howard, P., Saccenti, R. & and Terpstra, N. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 13-44 32 p.
‘The Language of Dives and Lazarus: Preaching Generosity and Almsgiving in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2020, In: I Tatti Studies. 23, p. 33-52 20 p.
‘The Language of Medicine in Renaissance Preaching’
Howard, P., 2020, Representing Infirmity: Diseased Bodies in Renaissance Italy, Henderson, J., Jacobs, F. & Nelson, J.K. (eds.). London: Routledge, p. 28-46 19 p.
‘The Language of Luxury in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2018, Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in Early Modern Italy, Kovesi, C. (ed.). Turnhout: Brepols, p. 47-70 24 p.
‘Languages of the Pulpit: the preacher as translator in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2018, City, Court, Academy: Language Choice in Early Modern Italy, del Soldato, E., & Rizzi, A. (eds.).London: Routledge, p. 31-46. 16 p.
‘Making a City and Citizens: The “Fruits” of Preaching in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2017, Medieval Urban Culture, Brown, A., & Dumolyn, J.(eds.). Turnhout: Brepols, p. 49-73 25 p.
‘Preaching at San Lorenzo’
Howard, P., 2017, San Lorenzo: A Florentine Church, Gaston, R. & Waldman, L. (eds.). Cambridge, Mass.: Villa I Tatti Series: Harvard University Press, vol. 2, p. 244-56 23 p.
Word, Deed, & Image: Mendicants to the World
Cornelison, S. (Editor), Debby, N. Ben (Editor) & Howard, P. (Editor), 2016. Turnhout: Brepols, 322 p.
‘A Landscape of Preaching: Bartolomeo Lapacci Rimbertini OP’
Howard, P., 2016, Mendicant Cultures in the Medieval and Early Modern World Word, Deed, and Image, Cornelison, S., Debby, N. Ben & Howard, P. (eds.). Turnout: Brepols, p. 45-64 20 p.
Studies on Florence and the Italian Renaissance in Honour of F.W. Kent
Howard, P. (Editor) & Hewlett, C. (Editor), 2016, Turnhout: Brepols. 522 p.
‘“A paradise inhabited by devils”: Bill Kent and His Florentine Renaissance’
Howard, P., (2016), Studies on Florence and the Italian Renaissance in Honour of F.W. Kent, Howard, P. & Hewlett, C. (eds.). Turnhout: Brepols, p.1-32 32 p.
‘ “Where the poor of Christ are cherished”: Poverty in the Preaching of Antoninus of Florence’
Howard, P., 2016, Poverty and Devotion in Mendicant Cultures 120-1450, Mews, C. J. & Welch, A. (eds.). London and New York: Routledge, p. 198-209 12 p.
‘ “It is a great disgrace for our city”: Archbishop Antoninus and Heresy in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., 2016, Religion, the Supernatural and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe, Eichberger, D. & Spinks, J. (eds.). Leiden: Brill, p.105-25 21 p.
‘ “In Magnificentiae Cosmi Medicei Florentini”: Maffei preaching 'against the grain’
Howard, P., 2016, The Badia Fiesolana: Augustinian and academic locus amoenus in the Florentine hills, Dreßen, A. & Pietschmann, K. (eds.). Zurich: LIT Verlag, p. 21-32 12 p.
‘La legge di natura nei sermoni e scritti di Antonino da Firenze’
Howard, P., 2016, Legge e Natura. I dibattiti teologici e giuridici fra XV e XVII sec., Sulas, C. & Saccenti, R. (eds.). Rome: Aracne editrice, pp. 52-68 17 p.
‘The Remembered Past as Present Exemplar in Florentine Renaissance Preaching’ Howard, P., 2013, in eds., Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, Israëls, M. & Waldman, L. (eds.). Florence: Olschki, vol. 2, p. 221-29 9 p.
Aquinas and Antoninus: A Tale of Two Summae in Renaissance Florence
Howard, P., 2013. The Etienne Gilson Series 35, Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 30 p.
Creating Magnificence in Renaissance Florence
Howard, P., 2012, Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 173 p.
‘Antonino e la predicazione nella Firenze Rinascimentale’
Howard, P., 2012. In: Memorie Domenicane. 43, p. 333-45 13 p.
‘Preaching, Brotherhoods, and “Biblical Literacy”: The Case of Pietro Bernardo of Florence’
Howard, P., 2012, Faith’s Boundaries: Laity & Clergy in Early Modern Confraternities, Pastore, S., Prosperi, A. & Terpstra, N. (eds.). Turnhout: Brepols, p. 113-129 17 p.
‘Preaching to the Mobs: Space, Ideas and Persuasion in Renaissance Florence’
Howard, P., Mobs: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Van Deusen, N. & Koff, L. (eds.). Leiden: Brill, p. 203-229 27 p.
‘‘‘Doctrine, when preached, is entirely civic”: the generation of public theology and the role of the studia in Renaissance Florence’,
Howard, P., 2011, Communities of Learning, Religious Diversity, and the Written Record 1085-1453, Mews, C. and Crossley, J. (eds.). Turnhout: Brepols, p. 295-316 22 p.