John Osborne (1951–2026)
We are deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend and colleague John Osborne, who passed away peacefully on 10 November 2026, surrounded by his family. We are fortunate to have had John’s wise counsel at PIMS since 2021.
John Osborne, a PIMS Associate Fellow, passed away on 10 November 2026. He was a cultural historian with a special focus on the art and archaeology of early medieval Rome. His numerous publications address such topics as the post-classical use of the Roman catacombs, the fragmentary mural paintings of churches (in particular San Clemente and Santa Maria Antiqua), seventeenth-century drawings of medieval monuments, and the medieval understanding and use of Rome’s heritage of ancient buildings and statuary. He also worked on cultural transmission between western Europe and Byzantium. After receiving his B.A. at Carleton University, an M.A. from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (1979), he held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Victoria (1979–2001), Queen’s University (2001–2005), and at Carleton (2005–2017), where he held the titles of Distinguished Research Professor and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He held visiting fellowships at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; the Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini, Venice; and the Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington, DC. He was an Honorary Fellow of the British School at Rome, a Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Courtauld. In 2024 he won the prestigious Premio Daria Borghese for his book Rome in the Ninth Century: A History in Art.
Donations in John’s memory may be sent to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation to support esophageal cancer research: https://supportthepmcf.ca/ui/PDPMemorial/participant/12814188.