This paper delves into the reception of Francesco Petrarca’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (RVF), during the Italian Quattrocento, a period often overshadowed by the subsequent developments of Petrarchism. Focusing on the commentaries by Francesco Filelfo and Francesco Patrizi from the 1440s and 1470s respectively, the study explores the invention of the ‘Pope’s trap’. This trap, as portrayed in the commentaries, involves the Pope’s alleged attempt to have sexual intercourse either with Petrarch’s sister (according to Filelfo) or with his beloved Laura (according to Patrizi). However, there is no historical evidence supporting these claims. By exploring the biographical-anecdotal hermeneutic of the commentaries, the analysis of this device sheds light on the tensions arising from the commentari­es’ integration of cultural and political contexts into Petrarch’s work and their struggle to reconcile conflicting authorship models embodied by Petrarch, who presented himself as a humanist while composing vernacular love poetry lacking immediate classical precedents. Finally, the paper considers the reception of the “Pope’s trap” in the Cinquecento through glosses written by a later hand on the side of Patrizi’s commentary. Keywords: Petrarch, Filelfo, Patrizi, Commentaries, Quattrocento, Avignon