Kennedy chronicles the process of Petrarch's canonization from the interpretive commentaries found in rare fifteenth- and sixteenth-century editions of Rime sparse through the imitative poetry of early modern writers in Italy, France, and England. The commentaries—each employing a different Petrarch to promote a different ideological paradigm—take a wide range of approaches to important contemporaneous issues relating to politics, class, religion, love, and gender relationships.

William J. Kennedy is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He is the author of several books, including The Site of Petrarchism: Early Modern National Sentiment in Italy, France, and England.