Il libro della Marolla va salutato come un notevole contributo ai progressi della ricerca su Sidonio, sia per la ricchezza della trattazione e la novità di molti suoi approcci, sia per il rigore metodologico con cui le singole note affrontano il vario e complesso ventaglio delle contingenti questioni, sia, infine, per una nitida chiarezza espositiva che mai si perde in inutili lungaggini, rendendo la lettura di queste pagine critiche perfino, a volte, avvincente.
(Marolla's book is to be hailed as a remarkable contribution to research on Sidonius - for the richness of the dissertation and the novelty of many of its approaches, for the methodological rigour with which the individual notes address the various and complex range of contingent questions and, lastly, for the clarity of its exposition, which never loses itself in unnecessary lengthiness, making the reading of these pages of criticism even, at times, absorbing.)

This new edition and exhaustive commentary on the first part of Sidonius' fifth book of letters examines it from philological, literary and historical perspectives, highlighting a variety of themes, intermingled literary models and unconventional lexical choices. This book offers rich pictures of Sidonius' family, friends, relationships, social interactions with literary milieu and political connections.

In the first commentary ever published on Book 5 of the letters of Sidonius, Giulia Marolla combines philological, literary and historical expertise to offer a profound new insight into the coherent artistic unit created from the largely secular matters that preoccupy the bishop in Book 5. Fresh discoveries abound in this tour de force.