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Juan de
Fermoselle called del Encina was born in 1469, it is supposed that he was
born in La Encina (Salamanca). He
cultivated either music or literature standing out as an erudite in the
Catholic Kings’ court. He
studies with Nebrija, who put the
Renaissance spirit in him, at Salamanca University, which he left to work
as a chapel master for the Second Duke of Alba, Don Álvarez de Toledo. From
the Duke of Alba’s patronage he passed to the Royal Court working as a
tutor of the Infante Juan. Because
of the death of the Infante he composed “La tragedia trovada” (1497)
which is perhaps his most inspired play. Later
he moves to Rome where he worked and received the favours of the Pope
Alejandro VI. In 1519, at the
age of 50, he become a priest and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where he
said his first mass. From 1523 on he lives in León of whose Cathedral he was the prior. He dies in that city in 1529, although some authors consider that it happened in 1530 and even in 1534 a some of them like Gil González Dávila thinks.
It must be standed out his fame as a musician, as well as a dramatist. Musically, he was recognized since the publication of Barbieri’s Song Book in the XV and XVI centuries in which he appears as the author of 68 compositions.
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