Mateo Alemán y de Enero (Seville, 1547 - México, 1614) Spanish author best known for his picaresque novel Guzmán de Alfarache, published in two parts in 1599 and 1604. He was the son of Hernando Alemán, of possible Jewish background and a doctor and surgeon in the prison Cárcel Real de Sevilla from 1557 and his second wife Juana de Enero, daughter of a merchant of Florentine origins. After studying Arts, he studied Medicine in the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares, but perhaps didn’t finish these following the death of his father in 1567,
In 1568 he was already established in Seville. His life had many highs and lows, including two years in prison. He worked in Madrid and various other places including Almaden. When he returned to the court he undertook translation of several odes by Horace and wrote the preface for the Proverbios morales of Alonso de Barros (Madrid, 1598), writing the first part of Guzmán de Alfarache, at the same time. In 1601 he returned to Seville where he was imprisoned again until his relation Juan Bautista del Rosso got him out. On his release he published the second part of Guzmán de Alfarache in 1604 after another version had been published by someone else. In1608 he received permission to go to Mexico, now old and worn out. He entered the service of the archbishop there, fray García Guerra. In 1609 he published his Ortografía castellana. In 1613 he wrote Sucesos de don fray García Guerra, arzobispo de México. In 1615
he was living in the Mexican locality of Chalco. He died shortly after. (details taken from
from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateo_Alemán -- accessed 23/04/14)
In Ortografía Castellana:
fol 4: “la vihuela o laud que todo es uno, aun que no en la hechura” ie lute and vihuela are the same except in the way they are made, their form.