Alonso Tostado

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Most Reverend

Alonso Fernández de Madrigal
Bishop of Ávila
Alonso Tostado
ChurchCatholic Church
DioceseDiocese of Ávila
In office1454–1455
PredecessorAlonso de Fonseca y Ulloa
SuccessorMartín Fernández de Vilches
Personal details
Bornc. 1410
Died3 September 1455
NationalityHispanic

Alonso Tostado (also Al(f)onso Fernández de

bishop of Ávila.[2] His epitaph stated "Wonder of earth, all [that] men can know he scanned."[3]

A leading scholar of his generation, he is particularly 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.[4]

Life

Alonso's father, also called Alonso Tostado, was a ploughman. The nickname Tostado refers to a ploughman's tanned or sunburnt complexion.[5] After a course of grammar under the

Franciscans he entered the University of Salamanca, where, besides philosophy and theology, he studied civil and canon law, Greek, Hebrew, and the other branches then comprised in the curriculum of a university. By great application joined to an unusually brilliant mind and an extraordinarily retentive memory
, he accumulated such a vast store of knowledge that his contemporaries styled him a wonder of the world. At 22 he began to lecture on a wide variety of subjects to large audiences attracted by his learning.

Later he assisted with distinction at the

Council of Basle
. During a visit to the
Ávila
. His sepulcher in
Avila was carved by Vasco de la Zarza
in 1518.

Works

In his Defensorium, written against

Juan de Torquemada
and other critics, he gave utterance to views derogatory to the authority of the pope. Besides a Spanish commentary on the chronicles of Eusebius and other minor works, he wrote commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament as far as Second Chronicles, and on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. These are diffuse, containing many digressions on dogmatic and other subjects. Tostado's works exercised a significant influence on the Jewish Bible commentator and statesman
Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508).[7]

An edition of his works in 13

folio volumes was published at Venice
in 1507 and 1547; a more complete edition in 24 folio volumes appeared at the same place in 1615, and another in 27 folio volumes in 1728.

References

  1. ^ a b His year of birth is unknown; it is often estimated as c. 1410, or in some publications as c. 1400–1410; Retratos de Españoles ilustres, Madrid (1791) gives 1415.
  2. ^ Nelson Cartagena, La contribución de España a la teoría de la traducción: introducción al estudio y antología de textos de los siglos XIV y XV (2009), p. 93
  3. ^ Andrew Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits in Three Volumes: Volume One (1848), p. 338.
  4. ^ Wolfgang Behringer, Hexen: Glaube, Verfolgung, Vermarktung (2011), p. 40. Hansen, Joseph (1901). Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung in Mittelalter. Bonn: Carl Georgi. p. 357.
  5. ^ Francisco de Vitoria, Political Writings Cambridge University Press (1991), p. 367.
  6. ISBN 9781136771613
    . Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  7. ^ Solomon Gaon, The Influence of the Catholic Theologian Alfonso Tosado on the Pentateuch Commentary of Isaac Abravanel (Ktav & Sephardic House, 1993).
  • Bechtel, F., Alonso Tostado,
    The Catholic Encyclopedia
     (1912).
  • Fontanus, Franciscus (ed).Alphonsi Tostati Hispani ... Opera nuperrime vetustissimo originali configurata (1615) (google books).
  • Hansen, Joseph, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung in Mittelalter, Bonn: Carl Georgi, 1901.
  • Gaon, Solomon, The Influence of the Catholic Theologian Alfonso Tostado on the Pentateuch Commentary of Isaac Abravanel (Hoboken, NJ: Ktav & Sephardic House, 1993).
  • Suarez P.L., Noematica biblico-mesianica de Alfonso de Matrigal, Obispo de Avila (1400-1455), Madrid (1956).
  • Tomás González Rolán/Antonio López Fonseca: Fernández de Madrigal, Alfonso: Breuiloquium de amore et amicitia = Tratado de amor y amiçiçia. I, De amore. Estudio y edición crítica bilingüe de los textos Latino y romance. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar 2021, ISBN 978-84-18093-74-6.

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of Ávila
1454–1455 		Succeeded by
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