ABSTRACT
Many biographers of Juan del Encina have drawn attention to the difficulties he had in obtaining political and ecclesiastical appointments; indeed, the man's character and his poetry have been analyzed as reflecting a life of constant frustration in this regard. The cardinal asks specifically that Encina be added to the rotulus in the place of Johannes Perez, who had died, and that Encina be considered as having served the cardinal during the conclave. Encina clearly was an ambitious man, frustrated in his own country, who apparently moved to Rome with the hope of getting ecclesiastical preferments from Alexander VI. Encina was an indefatigable benefice hunter, as were almost all who flocked to Rome in the late 15th century, and furthermore, was not daunted by insuccess. Were new documents discovered, they would probably illuminate additional corners of the life of this important Spanish poet, playwright, and musician.
