Folengo (1491â€"1544) was born in Mantua and joined the Benedictine order, but became a runaway monk and satirist of monasticism. In 1517 he publishedâ€"as “Merlin Cocaioâ€â€"the first version of his macaronic narrative poem Baldo. This edition provides the first English translation of this send-up of ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance.