Brad Bouley’s research focuses on the histories of religion and science in the early modern, especially Italian, context. His second book, The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy was published by by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2026. He is also the author of The Dragon and the Star: A Narrative History of the Scientific Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2027) and Pious Postmortems: Anatomy, Sanctity, and the Catholic Church in Early Modern Europe (UPenn, 2017). When not conducting research on the early modern period, he enjoys running, reading science fiction, cooking, and playing with his three boys.
Professor Bouley is currently working on a project tentatively titled “Bewitching the Duke: Disability, Medicine, and Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy.” It is based on several curious archival documents stemming from cases in Rome and Parma in the early seventeenth century. He is also conducting research on the various spaces in which medicine was practiced in early modern Rome and the role of the Inquisition as a patron of medical studies.
The Dragon and the Star: A Narrative History of the Scientific Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2027)
The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026)
“On Forensic Medical Evidence,” in Evidence, Crime, and Forensics in the Early Modern Mediterranean, eds., Lu Ann Homza and Amanda L. Scott (New York: Routledge, 2026), 48-62.
“Miracles and Holy Bodies,” in The Cambridge Companion to Counter-Reformation Sanctity, eds., Jan Machielsen, Emily Michelson and Katrina B. Olds (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2026), 193-210.
“A Plague of Meat: Food, Politics, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy,” Isis, Vol. 114, No. 3 (September, 2023): 631-637
“Digesting Faith: Eating God, Man, and Meat in Seventeenth-Century Rome,” Osiris, Vol. 35 (2020): 42-59
Pious Postmortems: Anatomy and the Creation of Early Modern Saints (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017)
“Papal Anatomy in the News: Bodies and Politics in the Early Modern Catholic World,” Sixteenth Century Journal Vol. 48, No. 3 (Autumn, 2018): 643-662.
Professor Bouley teaches courses on the Renaissance, Reformation, and the History of Science. In particular, he is excited to be offering courses in the future on Inquisition and Heresy, Niccolo Machiavelli, the Trial of Galileo, and a Comparative History of Baseball.
UC Senate Faculty Research Grant, 2024-2026
Villa I Tatti Fellowship in Renaissance Studies 2017-2018 Year
USC Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities 2012-2014 (declined second year)
American Academy Rome Prize Fellowship 2011–2012 Year
Fulbright Fellowship for Italy 2009–2010 Year