Bruce Cole received his Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr college in 1969. For two years he was the William E. Suida Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institiut in Florence. He has also had fellowships and grants from, among others, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Kress Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA.

Aside from many journal articles, Cole has published twelve books. Mainly devoted to the art of the Italian Renaissance, these include both scholarly monographs and surveys aimed at the student and general reader. Recently, some of Cole's articles, reviews, and lectures have been collected in a volume entitled Studies in Italian Art 1250-1550.

Cole is a member of the Academia Senese degli Intronati, the oldest learned society in Europe, and a member of the Honorary Board of Directors of the American Friends of Florentine Museums. In April, 1992, he was nominated by President Bush to the National Council on the Humanities, the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Cole's appointment was confirmed by the Senate in July, 1992. In 2001, Professor Cole was named to become Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities by President George W. Bush. He received the Grand Cross, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2008, the highest honor awarded by the Italian Government.