Studies of early modern reading practices have increased significantly in number and scope. Along with theoretical questions about the very possibility of a cultural history of reading, scholars have explored the many ways in which reading practices can be looked at through textual evidence. In this context, a particularly important place is held by the commentary tradition. Yet, depending on the kind of source commented upon, commentaries are also relevant to the history of specific literary genres. As such, the study of exegetical practices lies at the intersection of several disciplinary approaches, mobilizing critical tools that pertain to both the materiality of a given tradition and the wider cultural questions raised by the texts commented upon. A fruitful example of this intersection is the study of early modern commentaries on poetry. Not only do they tell us the story of the reception of given poetical texts, but they also illuminate the ways that readings of those texts contribute to the construction and shaping of poetical traditions. This combination of scopes is one of the most significant outcomes of Pietro Petteruti Pellegrino's study of Sertorio Quattromani's Luoghi difficili del Bembo, which includes a rigorous critical edition of Quattromani's previously unpublished commentary on Pietro Bembo's poems based on a manuscript copy of the work now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence.

Along with reviving the intellectual profile of an important, though somewhat neglected author of the late Renaissance (Quattromani lived between 1541 and 1603), this book situates the Luoghi difficili del Bembo within the context of coeval interpretive trends as well as debates on poetry, style, and the legacy of the Petrarchan poetical tradition. Petteruti's work is commendable in that it makes available a source of great interest, thus shedding light on the evolving exegetical preoccupations of late sixteenth-century students of poetry. In the long introductory essay (“Quattromani e la lirica dei moderni”) the author manages to outline the significance of Quattromani's commentary to a wider set of questions about Petrarchism.

On the one hand, the author dwells on the specificity of Quattromani's method by comparing the Luoghi difficili del Bembo—likely drafted in the mid-to-late 1560s—to the scholar's published commentary on the poems of Giovanni Della Casa. Instead of illustrating the text word by word, Quattromani proceeds by selecting passages and terms from Bembo's poetry that, in his opinion, deserve some attention. Primarily interested in issues of language and style, the commentator does not tackle the philosophical implications of the poems, keeping his focus on the poet's compositional process instead, with a strong interest in formal and lexical choices. Accordingly, Quattromani's remarks on loci selecti aim at joining the critical conversation that, since the appearance of Bembo's own poetical and theoretical works, had informed the gradual establishment of Petrarchism as the leading thread in the poetical culture of Cinquecento Italy.

On the other hand, by looking at Bembo through the lens of both classical and vernacular authors, Quattromani joins the attempt (fairly popular in the aftermath of Della Casa's poetical experience) to reassess the status of the models canonized by Bembo himself. As suggested, for instance, by Petteruti's discussion of stylistic gravitas (43), Quattromani's annotations do look at Bembo's poetry as a corpus that does not resolve the spectrum of poetical possibilities, which, since the 1540s, had been quickly expanding in terms of both subject matter and stylistic options. Key to the commentator's work on the text is his method, primarily based on a careful consideration of intertextuality. Indeed, Petteruti shows that Quattromani's commentary on Bembo relies heavily on the scholar's acquaintance with previous exegetical traditions and that Quattromani turns to commentaries as repositories of loci paralleli. In that respect, commentaries on Petrarch are of particular importance to Quattromani, who uses them as a veritable interface between the Petrarchan echoes found in Bembo's poetry and the intertextual references gathered by previous readers of the original Petrarchan passages. Petteruti's study of Quattromani thus illustrates the proactive role played by exegetical practices not only in the description, but also in the very making of the poetical tradition.