 José Ortega y Gasset was born on May 9, 1883, in Madrid, the second of four children by José Ortega Munilla and Dolores Gasset Chinchilla. Eduardo Ortega y Gasset, his brother, was born in April 1882, and after José, Rafaela in 1884 and Manuel in 1885. His mother was the daughter of Eduardo Gasset y Artime, founder of El Imparcial, the eminent liberal daily newspaper; Ortega divided his time between creative writing and serving as the editor of the family enterprise from 1900 to 1906. From September 1891 to 1897, Ortega and his brother Eduardo were enrolled in the Jesuit Collegio de San Estanislao de Kostka in Miraflores del Palo in Málaga, where he studied Greek and other subjects under the tutelage of Father Gonzalo Colomer and received his bachillerato. In November 1897, young Ortega enrolled in the Jesuit University of Deusto, in Bilbao, accompanied by Father Colomer, for the purpose of studying philology and Greek under the renowned scholar Julio Cejador y Frauca. He remained in Deusto, studying philosophy, letters, and law, until May 13, 1898, when he was awarded distinction in his first-year examinations at the University of Salamanca. Miguel de Unamuno, an eminent figure in Spanish intellectual circles and dean of the faculty, served on the panel of examiners. The following year, Ortega transferred to the Central University of Madrid from which he received his licenciatura in philosophy and letters in June 1902, and his doctorate in December 1904. He wrote his thesis on The Terrors of the Year One Thousand in which an early interest in a general interpretive approach to history, with a view toward the sociological manifestations of a historical period, became evident. While at the Central University of Madrid, Ortega developed a close friendship with Ramiro de Maeztu with whom he shared an enthusiasm for Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. In 1904, the year prior to his departure for Germany, Ortega wrote his first article for the El Imparcial, the family newspaper, on the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck.