Are there any good books with a text (religious book, fable, philosophy, etc) and running commentary? I have a copy of hamlet by a J.Q. Adams IIRC (not the president afaik) where there are many footnotes explaining e.g. what a reference refers to, the language, the significance of key moments, etc. It massively improved my appreciation for Shakespeare in 8th grade, so I'd love to read a similar version of something historical, where references can be even more important
Can you be a bit more specific about what you might be interested in? As you might imagine there are quite a lot of such texts. In general terms, some authors of history are also better or worse with foot/end notes which can amount to such a commentary in some cases. Examining those notes is always worthwhile, also because it gives you a feel for what the author's own knowledge or expertise in what they are writing about may be (i.e. are they using primary source materials, or is it a secondary source.)