Elias Mertel was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 lutenist, composer and intabulator of the Late Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 era. He was originally from Wangenbourg

Wangenbourg-Engenthal

Wangenbourg-Engenthal is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.The commune is not a single settlement, but rather an administrative unit comprising the following eight mountain hamlets:...

 and worked in the employ of Friedrich IV until 1595, then becoming financial manager in the Academy of Strasbourg. He published collections of lute music, notably Hortus Musicalis in Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

in 1615 including fantasies, preludes and fugues. Authorship of the work is uncertain.