author
Teofilo Folengo
1496–1544
A bold Renaissance poet who turned the clash between classical Latin and everyday Italian into a lively comic art, Teofilo Folengo is best known for his playful “macaronic” verse. Writing under the name Merlinus Cocaius, he blended satire, fantasy, and rough-edged humor in works that helped define Italian burlesque poetry.
1 Audiobook
![Histoire maccaronique de Merlin Coccaie [pseud.] : prototype de Rabelais ou est traicté les ruses de Cingar, les tours de Boccal, les adventures de Leonard, les forces de Fracasse, les enchantemens de Gelfore et Pandrague et les rencontres heureuses de Balde](/api/img/6ab4b63dd911e603a2b0c871/cover.jpg)
About the author
Usually dated 1491–1544, Teofilo Folengo was an Italian Benedictine monk, poet, and satirist born near Mantua. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Merlinus Cocaius and Limerno Pitocco, and his restless life included periods inside and outside monastic discipline.
Folengo became one of the leading practitioners of macaronic poetry—a deliberately comic mixture of Latin and vernacular Italian. His best-known work, Baldus (also called Macaronic Chronicle), parodies the grand style of epic poetry, while Moschaea humorously turns a battle between insects into a mock-heroic adventure.
He later produced religious and dramatic works, including Orlandino, Caos del Triperuno, and Humanità del Figliuolo di Dio. His inventive language and irreverent humor made him an important forerunner of later European comic and satirical literature.