Juan del Encina

Juan de la Encina (1469-ca. 1533), a composer, poet and playwriter, often called the founder of Spanish drama, was born in 1469 near Salamanca, probably at Encina de San Silvestre. He was of Jewish converso descent. See, Norman Roth, "Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain", Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995, pp. 157, 176-178. After leaving the University of Salamanca sometime in the early 1490s he became a member of the household of Don Fadrique de Toledo, the second Duke of Alba.