Baldus
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Baldus (1517) is a work by Italian macaronic poet Teofilo Folengo (1491 - 1544).
Teofilo Folengo's first work, under the pseudonym Merlin Cocaio, was the macaronic narrative poem Baldo (1517), which relates the adventures of a fictitious hero named Baldo ("Baldus"), a descendant of French royalty and something of a juvenile delinquent who encounters imprisonment; battles with local authorities, pirates, shepherds, witches, and demons; and a journey to the underworld. Throughout his adventures Baldo is accompanied by various companions, among them a giant, a centaur, a magician, and his best friend Cingar, a trickster. Baldo blended Latin with various Italian dialects in hexameter verse. Though frequently censured, it soon attained a wide popularity, and within a very few years passed through several editions and was later expanded by Folengo.
An English translation was published for the first time in 2007 by Ann E. Mullaney as part of The I Tatti Renaissance Library.
There is no doubt that the Baldus is one of Rabelais's important sources.
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