Alonso Tostado

Alonso Tostado (also Al(f)onso Fernández de Madrigal, variously known as Alphonsus Tostatus, Tostatus Abulensis, and in Spanish as El Tostado or El Abulense; c. 1410 – 3 September 1455) was a Spanish theologian, councillor of John II of Castile and briefly bishop of Ávila. His epitaph stated "Wonder of earth, all [that] men can know he scanned."

A leading scholar of his generation, he is particularly known for providing the first indication of the end of the pre-critical era of biblical studies, allowing us to foresee the beginning of Textual criticism. In his Comentaria in Deuteronomium, III/2 (Köln, 1613) pp. 317-319, he asks: An Moyses potuerit scribere prophetice in verbis suis ista quae habentur hic vel scripserit literam istam Esdras et Josue (Could Moses have written these things prophetically in his own words? Ezra and Joshua are said to have written this text). A few centuries later, the question of whether the Pentateuch was entirely the work of Moses or of other authors would become a central topic of discussion among Pentateuch scholars. He is also known as an early theorist on witchcraft; in his De maleficis mulieribus, quae vulgariter dicuntur bruxas (1440) he defended the possibility of flying witches based on biblical exegesis.