Gregory, a monk at the monastery of Narek on the south coast of Lake Van, is the most famous of all Armenian poets, whose major work – ninety-three prayers known as the ‘Book of Lamentation' – is to this day known simply as ‘Narek’. He was born in the mid-tenth century, and on the death of his mother placed with his brother for upbringing at the monastery at an early age under the tutelage of its abbot, Anania, his mother's cousin. Under Anania Narek had become a celebrated centre of learning, and Gregory's writing reflects both theological controversy as well as spiritual concerns. In addition to his remarkable collection of pentitential ‘soliloquies with God’, Gregory composed numerous hymns, panegyrics and homilies. His Commentary on the Song of Songs, composed in 977, is a presage of his mature development as poet of mystical love.

To mark the millenium of his death (soon after 1003), numerous scholarly gatherings were held throughout the Armenian world. In 2005 a conference under the patronage of the Catholic patriarchate of Cilicia was held in the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome; this addressed Gregory primarily as theologian and mystic, and was published in 2006 in the series Orientalia Christiana Analecta as no. cclxxv. A second gathering took place in Kaslik (Lebanon) in 2009. The papers in this volume emphasise the importance of Gregory's impact on Armenian liturgical and sacramental life. As with all such conferences, the speakers ranged widely in their points of view and approaches. Not all papers are of equal scholarly merit, but all attest to the continuing impact of Gregory's poetry on Armenians. Taken together the two volumes provide a rich overview of recent scholarship on Gregory, his poetry and his spiritual heritage.

Pétrossian's study of Gregory's youthful Commentary on the Song of Songs is primarily interested in its theology in the larger context of earlier interpretations of this enigmatic text and of Gregory's own development. He begins with a lengthy survey of the scholarship and spiritual life of the monastery of Narek in the tenth century. Chapter ii deals with the biblical text of the commentary, which does not accord with the later standard Armenian biblical text fixed in the twelfth/thirteenth century. The Armenian text of the Song contains six verses not found in the Hebrew, Syriac or Greek; these are normally placed at the end, but Gregory treats them as a Christological preface. Pétrossian then discusses Gregory's debt to previous commentators, notably Gregory of Nyssa. The third chapter discusses in detail the elaborate symbolism of the Song and its interpretation as reflected in Gregory of Narek's theology. These chapters take up more than twice the space of the actual translation, which is accompanied by rather sparse annotation. Then follows a word-for-word comparison of Gregory's biblical text with that of the Septuagint.

To date no critical edition of Gregory's Commentary on the Song of Songs has appeared, though there are translations in Italian (Mistrih, Studia Orientalia Christiana Collectanea xii, xiii), English (Ervine, Cistercian Studies cxv), and now French. Pétrossian's study offers a comprehensive introduction to Gregory of Narek's thought, and is a valuable addition to the long-neglected field of Armenian biblical commentaries.