Born José Jiménez, but known as “el lector Morata” after the town of his birth, José de San Bartolomé was born in Morata de Tajuño (Madrid), son of Pedro Jiménez and Juana Ruiz. He entered the monastery of El Escorial as a boy cantorcillo. He studied grammar and music there, learning to play bajoncillo, chirimía, vihuela (de mano or de arco? -- “Bigüela” and “dançar de quenta”. He was also renowned as a composer but no works of his are known to survive. He was reputed to be a fine instrumentalist. Barbieri reported that his biography was written in the libro de obituarios and the unpublished manuscript of fray Juan Nuñez. Barbieri quotes this in full, showing his excellence in many aspects of his life and profession. Barbieri assumes that the references to the vihuela are to the vihuela de mano, but they could equally be to the vihuela de arco or the guitar given his dates. He was included by Pujol among the his list of vihuelists (pujol1949) but his only source of information was the papers of Barbieri. Barbieri included him twice in his writings, once as “Morata” (casares1986, 347-48) and then as “San Bartolomé” (casares1986, 427-28).