New Books in Italian Studies

In 1644 four norcini
or pork butchers were accused of killing not pigs, but seven of their
fellow citizens, stripping the meat from the bones, then combining it
with pig to make sausages, which were then sold to Romans from their
shop behind the Pantheon. In the multiple pamphlets describing this
supposed crime, the authors of this accusation blamed residents of Rome
themselves, who had become so obsessed with meat that they turned a
blind eye to
such horrendous acts. This fabricated story points to an underlying
reality—that in the early seventeenth century, a series of popes
dramatically increased the amount of food and wine consumed by Romans,
culminating in a per capita consumption of over a pound of meat per day
during the reign of Pope Urban VIII (d. 1644).

The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy (University
of Pennsylvania Press, 2026) traces the efforts and
activities of a range of actors who strove to bring meat to the Roman
table. Dr. Bradford A. Bouley shows how Rome’s preoccupation with food
was the result of papal policy in the aftermath of the Reformation;
food, and especially meat, served as religious and political propaganda,
symbolizing the correctness of the Catholic faith and demonstrating the
extent of papal power. Dr. Bouley details the dramatic reorganization
of Roman foodways needed to satisfy this demand for meat, as large herds
of animals had to be funneled from the countryside to the city. This
consumption was ultimately not sustainable, triggering a crisis that
fueled sensational rumors
of murder and cannibalism and eventually, Dr. Bouley contends, sparked
the outbreak of civil war, as vassals rebelled against papal oversight. The Barberini Butchers
recovers this significant episode in food, environmental, and cultural
history, one that brings early modern politics and history into
conversation with concerns over human use of natural resources and
consumption of animal products that continue to resonate clearly today.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 
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Today’s guest, Krzysztof Rowiński, is the author of Failure Narratives Beyond Redemption: Twentieth Century Literature and Film
(Routledge, 2026). This book focuses on the concept of non- redemptive
failure, a type of failure that is not part of a larger narrative of
success or narrative redemption, with attention to how the concept
functions between literature, critical theory, and other fields.
Examining literature and film from mid- twentieth- century Poland,
Italy, and the United States, it traces productive effects of failure
which cannot survive into the future, yet have an important,
transformative impact in the moment in which they occur. The book
engages with the work of John Williams, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Bruno
Jasieński, proposing a theory of failure at the intersection of literary
study, performance theory, and political thought. In discussing these
examples, the book examines the place of failure in the broader context
of modern and contemporary US American, Italian, and Polish literary and
cultural traditions.

Because of its interdisciplinary potential, this study might appeal
to readers in art history, philosophy, political theory, and other
fields within the humanities and social sciences. Failure Narratives Beyond Redemption
offers a framework that could not only spotlight the contribution of
literary studies to the topic, in the form of narrative analysis but
also become part of the theoretical apparatus for further research in
these fields.

Jane Hwang Degenhardt is Professor English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Globalizing Fortune on the Early Modern Stage (Oxford UP, 2022) and Islamic Conversion and Christian Resistance on the Early Modern Stage (Edinburgh UP, 2012). She is also a co-editor of the academic journal English Literary Renaissance.
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In Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a
desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on
the battlefield by 1440; later in that century Leonardo da Vinci
sketched a design for a faster-firing, more portable handgun that could
be hidden beneath a cloak. As the gun proliferated in society, it became
both a means of self-defence and a threat to civic order. In The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires (Princeton
University Press, 2026), historian Catherine Fletcher explores the
emergence of firearms in Renaissance Italy and beyond, describing the
social transformations that accompanied the evolution of the handgun
from innovative military technology to widely used personal accessory.
Fletcher shows that as guns became smaller and the new wheellock
mechanism made concealed carry possible, Italian states increasingly
tried to control their use—even as they viewed firearms as necessary for
their militias. In the end, Fletcher reports, the importance of civic
defence trumped the concern for social order. As guns became ever more
acceptable, stories of how firearms aided Europeans’ overseas conquests
created a new and more positive image for a weapon once considered the
devil’s work. Debates over the regulation of firearms five centuries
ago—which included arguments over the restriction of gun ownership, the
use of guns for self-defence and the regulation of an armed militia—in
many ways anticipate discussions about gun control today. Fletcher’s
groundbreaking account sheds new light on how governments weighed the
competing priorities of defence and social order as they set out to
build empires.

Catherine Fletcher is professor of history at Manchester Metropolitan
University. She is the author of several books on early modern Italy,
including The Roads to Rome, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance and The Black Prince of Florence: The Life of Alessandro de’ Medici.

Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University
of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies;
Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual)
History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature.

YouTube Channel: here
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Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions that still undergird the global economy today. A key institution of early modern risk management was General Average, a procedure used to redistribute extraordinary costs arising from a maritime venture between all financially interested parties. For example, should one merchant’s cargo be jettisoned to lighten a ship in a storm, the loss would be shared pro rata by the shipper and all the cargo-owners. A risk-sharing practice, different from the risk-shifting of marine insurance which became established relatively late, General Average is still in widespread use.

In Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe: General Average in Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany (Boydell Press, 2025), Jake Dyble explores how General Average worked. It reveals the gap between General Average in law and how it worked on the ground. It shows how General Average partitioned a wide array of business costs, thereby performing a significant role in structuring maritime commerce, managing risk and promoting shipping and trade. In addition, the book discusses how far General Average was a feature of a supposedly ancient, universal, customary maritime law, and contributes to debates about the evolution of institutions in economic development.

Dr Jake Dyble is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padova, Italy.

This interview is conducted by Dr Lewis Wade, a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Bamberg. He is the author of the prize-winning Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France and can be found on Bluesky @wadehistory.bsky.social.
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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/italian-studies

Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts
of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions
that still undergird the global economy today. A key institution of
early modern risk management was General Average, a procedure used to
redistribute extraordinary costs arising from a maritime venture between
all financially interested parties. For example, should one merchant’s
cargo be jettisoned to lighten a ship in a storm, the loss would be
shared pro rata by the shipper and all the cargo-owners. A risk-sharing
practice, different from the risk-shifting of marine insurance which
became established relatively late, General Average is still in widespread use.

In Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe: General Average in Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany
(Boydell Press, 2025), Jake Dyble explores how General Average worked.
It reveals the gap between
General Average in law and how it worked on the ground. It shows how
General Average partitioned a wide array of business costs, thereby
performing a significant role in structuring maritime commerce, managing
risk and promoting shipping and trade. In addition, the book discusses
how far General Average was a feature of a supposedly ancient,
universal, customary maritime law, and contributes to debates about the
evolution of institutions in economic development.

Dr Jake Dyble is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padova, Italy.

This
interview is conducted by Dr Lewis Wade, a Humboldt Research Fellow at
the University of Bamberg. He is the author of the prize-winning Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France and can be found on Bluesky @wadehistory.bsky.social.
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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/italian-studies