Lucas Fernández

Lucas Fernández (c. 1474 – 1542) was a Spanish dramatist and musician, writer in Leonese language.

He was born and educated at Salamanca, and was a professor of music there from 1522.

The surviving work of Lucas Fernández consists of six plays. Although showing the influence of his rival Juan del Encina, they are notable for their dialogue, humor, and the effective interleaving of song and music with the action of play. The best of the works is an Easter play Auto de la Pasión, while his Dialogo para cantar is an early example of the zarzuela.

Lucas Fernández writes with a great influence of Leonese language, like na (feminine for "in the"), nel (masculine for "in the"), dexay (let), diz (says), quier (wants), sal (goes out)... and so many others.

Son of Alfonso de Cantalapiedra and María Sánchez, he was at the service of the cathedral; he defeated his admired Juan del Encina in the oppositions to singer of the Cathedral of Salamanca (1498); to it alluded Encina in his Égloga of the great rains. In 1520 he was Abbot of the Church of Santo Tomás in Salamanca. He was professor of music in the University of this city (1522) and appeared in 1533 in the commission of reform of the statutes of the same.