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Mena, Bernal de

Active 1533- †1575

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Person Born Died Gender Person ID
Bernal de Mena M P0267

Instrument(s) Professional group Social status Social sphere Why is the person listed?
vihuela Violero Artisan Urban Maker Maker (violero) Violero (inst maker)

Years active Place active Century Region
1533- †1575 Toledo 16cent/2/mid Castilla
Biographical information

reynaudPT, p. 400: One of four violeros listed in Relación de los vecinos que parece que ay enla ciudad de Toledo en este presente año de 1561. • Reynaud 403-404: Gives considerable information on rental documents in the period 1534-1575, year of Bernal’s death. There are some contradictory elements. • 1534, guarantor fo his wife Inés de Torres in the rental of a house where she had lived [?] with her first husband, violero Juan Vázquez, deceased. She rents it out in 1555 for 8254 mrs/yr, all but one room. 1541 Bernal and Inés live in the Calle de los Azacanes, parish of San Yuste alongside the Hospital de San Pedro, and apparently belonging to the chapter. The same day the chapter gives him “acciones” in a house in the Plaza del Jaspe, which he has to repair and can then rent out. No documents survive regarding the rental of a workshop, Reynaud thus concludes that he worked from home. Apparently stays in the home for his working life. Several lease renewal documents with some of his violero colleagues as guarantors or witnesses eg Francisco Tofino and Juan del Portillo in 1548. Rent of 10,000 mrs/yr. Sublet part of the house between 1555 and 1573 for about 6000 mrs/yr. 1566.02.01 takes into his service 6-year-old María daughter of a widow named Ana Ximénez, for 14 years, for the sum of 500 mrs/yr and at the end of the contract, her dowry. There is no surviving documentation to hand regarding his activity as a violero. Died between 1573 and 1575, years in which his wife made her will. She requests to be buried in the parish of San Yuste, in the grave where her husband reposes, and designates the two sons of her first marriage (to Diego Gómez she says) as her executors. [two different names for her first husband, was Bernal her 3rd husband or is there some other confusion here?] [reynaudPT, pp. 415, 416] details of financial dealings - loan • [reynaudPT, p. 417] wife Inés Rodrigo - will dates from 1575.10.07 [AHPT 1927, f 455].
romanillos2002, p. 247 summarises Reynaud

Related persons


Source documents
Date Document
1570.02.12 Will of a tambor player.


Bibliography
Ref Author Item Pages
reynaudPT Reynaud, François. La Polyphonie tolédane et son milieu des premiers témoignages aux environs de 1600. Paris: CNRS, 1996. 400,403,404,415,416, 417
romanillos2002 Romanillos, José Luis and Marian Harris Winspear. The Vihuela de mano and the Spanish Guitar: A Dictionary of the Makers of Plucked and Bowed Musical Instruments of Spain (1200-2002). Guijosa (Guadalajara): Sanguino Press, 2002. 247
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