Most of my historical writing has focused on European (and a little American) science and medicine between about 1650 and 1750, with some forays back into the sixteenth century and forward into the nineteenth. My most recent book, The Courtiers’ Anatomists: Animals and Humans in Louis XIV’s Paris, was published in 2015 by the University of Chicago Press, and won the Pfizer Prize of the History of Science Society for best scholarly book. It is about anatomy, animals, and natural history in Paris between about 1640 and 1730, with the main focus on the period between 1660 and 1700. I argue that human and particularly animal anatomy played a critical role in the development of the experimental methods that are central to the development of modern science, and that dissection and natural history were as important as astronomy and physics in the events we call the Scientific Revolution. Among the human players in my story are Jean Pecquet, Claude Perrault, and Joseph-Guichard Duverney — none of them exactly household words in the literature of the Scientific Revolution.
In the past decade, I’ve also been involved in a research project with marine ecologist Jenny Dugan (UCSB) on the ecological and cultural history of a Santa Barbara wetland, the former Campbell Ranch, which is now part of the Coal Oil Point Reserve (part of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System) and also part of the research site for the NSF-funded Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research project (SBC-LTER). I am an investigator for the SBC-LTER. I’m especially interested in the role that historical knowledge can play in ecological restoration, and I’ve co-authored several articles on this topic.
I’m in the midst of a new book project on giant bones and skeletons and the origins of nationalism in early modern Europe, which I worked on last year at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France and at the Descartes Center at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. I’ve recently returned to my project on early modern anatomical sksletons, for which I was awarded a grant in 2016 from the National Science Foundation. I’m also currently preparing a second edition of my 2003 book Experimenting with Humans and Animals.
Recent Non-academic publications
On infection parties, herd immunity and other half-truths History & Policy, 8 April 2020
De-mystifying the NSF Application Process History of Science Society Newsletter, April 2017 (also featured on the OSU College of Liberal Arts research blog)
The Bonds of History: A Festschrift for Mary Jo Nye History of Science Society Newsletter, April 2015
Sam Schmieding, Anita Guerrini, and Fred Swanson, “Exploring LTER History,” LTER Network News, 26:4 (Fall 2013)
Books and Google Books History of Science Society Newsletter, April 2012
Analyzing Culture with Google Books: Is It Social Science? Pacific Standard (online 7 August 2011)
Roast Beef and… Salad? History Today, February 2011, 36-43 (chosen for “Best of History Today in 2011”)
Blog posts on:
Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Stanford University
Untold Lives, British Library
International Congress of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, 2013
Center for Research in Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, University of Cambridge (CRASSH), “Objects in Motion”
The Vault, Slate Magazine
Anita Guerrini 
Dear Toni, Thank you so much for your interest in my work. You are right that real skeletons were in medical schools at least until the 80s — no doubt there are some still around. At an exhibit at the Wellcome in London a few years ago, I learned that human skulls were supplied from India until 1992! Your mysteries sound great, I’m a mystery fan and I will look them up. Best, Anita
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I learned about your studies into the cultural history of the human skeleton and skull via “The Gruesome History of Making Human Skeletons” and couldn’t wait to visit your blog. I write about skeletons, to, but not in any way that would compete with your work–I write murder mysteries with a crime-solving duo that consists of an adjunct English professor and her BFF Sid, a walking, talking skeleton. So naturally I’ve always interested in learning more about skeletons.
I was curious about your statement that replica skeletons replaced the real thing in medical schools. (“Now most of the skeletons used in medical schools are plastic, but the ones that were used a couple hundred years ago—they were all people,” says Guerrini.) In the book THE RED MARKET, author Scott Carney says that until laws in India changed in 1985 and skeletons became harder to get and more expensive, most medical schools did reply on the real thing. I used as background material in one of my mysteries, so I’m sure hoping I didn’t get it wrong.
At any rate, I look forward to read the results of your research!
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HI! Thanks for the post. I’m also found of pets and I have a blog too (In french)!Come and read my posts. Bye Julie
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Hello! merci d’avoir partagé cet article et aussi toutes ces belles photos sur ton blog. je suis également passionné par les animaux et j’ai même débuté un blog y’a peu de temps. a bientôt, Julie
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