Nostradamusen.wikipedia.org /wiki/Nostradamus

For other uses, see Nostradamus (disambiguation).

Michel de Nostredame

Nostradamus: originalportrait by his son Cesar

Born 14 December or 21 December 1503Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France

Died 2 July 1566 (aged 62)Salon-de-Provence, Provence, France

Occupation Physician, author, translator, astrological consultant

Known for Prophecy, treating plague

Religion Roman Catholicism

Signature

Michel de Nostredame (depending on the source, 14 or 21 December 1503 [1] – 2 July 1566), usuallyLatinised as Nostradamus,[2] was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections ofprophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties,the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely beenout of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with much of the popularpress, credits him with predicting many major world events.[3][4] Most academic sources maintain thatthe associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result ofmisinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render themuseless as evidence of any genuine predictive power.[5] Nevertheless, occasional commentators havesuccessfully used a process of free interpretation and determined "twisting" of his words to predict anapparently imminent event. For example, in 1867 (three years before it happened), Le Pelletier did soto anticipate either the triumph or the defeat of Napoleon III in a war that, in the event, begged to beidentified as the Franco-Prussian War, while admitting that he could not specify either which or when. [6]

Nostredame's claimed birthplacebefore its recent renovation, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Contents

1 Biography

1.1 Childhood

1.2 Student years

1.3 Marriage and healing work

1.4 Seer

1.5 Final years and death

2 Works

3 Origins of The Prophecies

4 Interpretations

5 Alternative views

6 In popular culture

7 See also

8 References

9 Further reading

10 External links

Biography

Childhood

Born on 14, or 21 December 1503 [1] in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence,Provence, France, where his claimed birthplace still exists, Michelde Nostredame was one of at least nine children of Reynière (orRenée) de Saint-Rémy and grain dealer and notary Jaume (orJacques) de Nostredame. The latter's family had originally beenJewish, but Jaume's father, Guy Gassonet, had converted toCatholicism around 1455, taking the Christian name "Pierre" andthe surname "Nostredame" (meaning Our Lady, the saint's day onwhich his conversion was solemnised).[7] Michel's known siblingsincluded Delphine, Jean I (c. 1507–77), Pierre, Hector, Louis,Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523).[8][9][10] Littleelse is known about his childhood, although there is a persistenttradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfatherJean de St. Rémy[11] — a tradition which is somewhat underminedby the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after1504, when the child was only one year old.[12]

Municipal plaque on the claimed birthplace ofNostradamus in St-Rémy, France, describinghim as an 'astrologer' and giving his birth-date as 14 December 1503 (Julian Calendar)

Nostradamus's house at Salon-de-Provence, as reconstructed after the1909 Lambesc earthquake

Student years

At the age of 15[3] Nostredame entered the University ofAvignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than ayear (when he would have studied the regular trivium ofgrammar, rhetoric and logic, rather than the later quadrivium ofgeometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy/astrology), he wasforced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors inthe face of an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon,Nostredame (according to his own account) travelled thecountryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbalremedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, heentered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate inmedicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards by the university's procurator, Guillaume Rondelet, whenit was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the universitystatutes,[13] and had been slandering doctors.[14] The expulsion document (BIU Montpellier, Register S2 folio 87) still exists in the faculty library.[15] However, some of his publishers and correspondentswould later call him "Doctor". After his expulsion, Nostredame continued working, presumably still as anapothecary, and became famous for creating a "rose pill" that supposedly protected against theplague.[16]

Marriage and healing work

In 1531 Nostredame was invited by Jules-César Scaliger, a leading Renaissance scholar, to come toAgen.[17] There he married a woman of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), who bore himtwo children. [18] In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, hecontinued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy.[19]

On his return in 1545, he assisted the prominent physician LouisSerre in his fight against a major plague outbreak in Marseille, andthen tackled further outbreaks of disease on his own in Salon-de-Provence and in the regional capital, Aix-en-Provence. Finally, in1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which existstoday, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, withwhom he had six children—three daughters and three sons.[20]

Between 1556 and 1567 he and his wife acquired a one-thirteenthshare in a huge canal project organised by Adam de Craponne toirrigate largely waterless Salon-de-Provence and the nearby Désertde la Crau from the river Durance.[21]

Seer

After another visit to Italy, Nostredame began to move away frommedicine and toward the occult. Following popular trends, he wrotean almanac for 1550, for the first time Latinising his name fromNostredame to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by thealmanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually.Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies,[22][23] as well as at leasteleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, inMarch. It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons fromfar away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic" advice from him, though he generallyexpected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculatingthem himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on

Century I, Quatrain 1: 1555 Lyon Bonhommeedition

Nostradamus' current tomb in the CollégialeSaint-Laurent, Salon, into which his scatteredremains were transferred after 1789.

the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figuresfor his clients' place or time of birth.[24][25][a][26]

He then began his project of writing a book of one thousandmainly French quatrains,[27] which constitute the largelyundated prophecies for which he is most famous today.Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds,[28]

however, he devised a method of obscuring his meaning byusing "Virgilianised" syntax, word games and a mixture ofother languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, andProvençal.[29] For technical reasons connected with theirpublication in three installments (the publisher of the thirdand last installment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a "Century," or book of 100verses), the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not survived in any extant edition.

The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Propheties (The Prophecies), received a mixed reactionwhen they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane,while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise. Catherine de Médicis, wife of King Henry II ofFrance, was one of Nostradamus' greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hintedat unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw uphoroscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded,[30] but by the time of hisdeath in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, theyoung King Charles IX of France.

Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by theInquisition, but neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he would have been in dangeronly if he had practiced magic to support them. In fact, his relationship with the Church was alwaysexcellent.[31] His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 came about purely because he hadpublished his 1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop, contrary to a recent royaldecree.[32]

Final years and death

By 1566, Nostradamus's gout, which had plagued himpainfully for many years and made movement very difficult,turned into edema, or dropsy. In late June he summonedhis lawyer to draw up an extensive will bequeathing hisproperty plus 3,444 crowns (around $300,000 US today),minus a few debts, to his wife pending her remarriage, intrust for her sons pending their twenty-fifth birthdays andher daughters pending their marriages. This was followedby a much shorter codicil.[33] On the evening of 1 July, he isalleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "Youwill not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead, lying on the floornext to his bed and a bench (Presage 141 [originally 152] for November 1567, as posthumously editedby Chavigny to fit what happened).[34][23] He was buried in the local Franciscan chapel in Salon (partof it now incorporated into the restaurant La Brocherie) but re-interred during the French Revolution inthe Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where his tomb remains to this day.[35]

Works

In The Prophecies he compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. The first installment waspublished in 1555 and contained 353 quatrains.[36] The second, with 289 further prophetic verses, was

Nostradamus statue in Salon-de-Provence

Copy of Garencières' 1672 English translation ofthe Prophecies, located in The P.I. Nixon MedicalHistory Library of The University of Texas HealthScience Center at San Antonio.

printed in 1557.[36] The third edition, with three hundred new quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558,but now only survives as part of the omnibus edition thatwas published after his death in 1568. This versioncontains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, groupedinto nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries".[36]

Given printing practices at the time (which included type-setting from dictation), no two editions turned out to beidentical, and it is relatively rare to find even two copies thatare exactly the same. Certainly there is no warrant forassuming—as would-be "code-breakers" are prone to do—that either the spellings or the punctuation of any edition areNostradamus' originals.[37]

The Almanacs, by far the most popular of his works,[38]

were published annually from 1550 until his death. He oftenpublished two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs(detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (moregeneralised predictions).

Nostradamus was not only a diviner, but a professionalhealer. It is known that he wrote at least two books onmedical science. One was an extremely free translation (orrather a paraphrase) of The Protreptic of Galen(Paraphrase de C. GALIEN, sus l'Exhortation de Menodoteaux estudes des bonnes Artz, mesmement Medicine), andin his so-called Traité des fardemens (basically a medicalcookbook containing, once again, materials borrowed mainly from others) he included a description ofthe methods he used to treat the plague, including bloodletting, none of which apparently worked.[39]

The same book also describes the preparation of cosmetics.

A manuscript normally known as the Orus Apollo also exists in the Lyon municipal library, whereupwards of 2,000 original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under the aegis of MichelChomarat. It is a purported translation of an ancient Greek work on Egyptian hieroglyphs based onlater Latin versions, all of them unfortunately ignorant of the true meanings of the ancient Egyptianscript, which was not correctly deciphered until Champollion in the 19th century.[40]

Since his death only the Prophecies have continued to be popular, but in this case they have beenquite extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have appeared in that time, together withover 2,000 commentaries. Their popularity seems to be partly due to the fact that their vagueness andlack of dating make it easy to quote them selectively after every major dramatic event andretrospectively claim them as "hits" (see Nostradamus in popular culture).[41]

Origins of The Prophecies

Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology—the astrological'judgement', or assessment, of the 'quality' (and thus potential) of events such as births, weddings,coronations etc.—but was heavily criticised by professional astrologers of the day such as LaurensVidel[42] for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" (the comparison of futureplanetary configurations with those accompanying known past events) could actually predict whatwould happen in the future.[43]

Research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-worldprophecies (mainly Bible-based), supplemented with references to historical events and anthologies of

omen reports, and then projects those into the future in part with the aid of comparative horoscopy.Hence the many predictions involving ancient figures such as Sulla, Gaius Marius, Nero, and others,as well as his descriptions of "battles in the clouds" and "frogs falling from the sky."[44] Astrology itself ismentioned only twice in Nostradamus's Preface and 41 times in the Centuries themselves, but morefrequently in his dedicatory Letter to King Henry II. In the last quatrain of his sixth century hespecifically attacks astrologers.

His historical sources include easily identifiable passages from Livy, Suetonius, Plutarch and otherclassical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Villehardouin and JeanFroissart. Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat'sLivre de l'estat et mutations des temps of 1549–50.

One of his major prophetic sources was evidently the Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a rangeof prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others (hisPreface contains 24 biblical quotations, all but two in the order used by Savonarola). [b] This book hadenjoyed considerable success in the 1520s, when it went through half a dozen editions but did notsustain its influence, perhaps owing to its mostly Latin text, Gothic script and many difficultabbreviations. Nostradamus was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French, whichmay explain why they are credited to him. It should be noted that modern views of plagiarism did notapply in the 16th century. Authors frequently copied and paraphrased passages withoutacknowledgement, especially from the classics. The latest research suggests that he may in fact haveused bibliomancy for this—randomly selecting a book of history or prophecy and taking his cue fromwhatever page it happened to fall open at.[3]

Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus,[45] whichincluded extracts from Michael Psellos's De daemonibus, and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum(Concerning the mysteries of Egypt...), a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus, a 4th-century Neo-Platonist. Latin versions of both had recently been published in Lyon, and extracts fromboth are paraphrased (in the second case almost literally) in his first two verses, the first of which isappended to this article. While it is true that Nostradamus claimed in 1555 to have burned all of theoccult works in his library, no one can say exactly what books were destroyed in this fire.

Only in the 17th century did people start to notice his reliance on earlier, mainly classical sources. [c]

This may help explain the fact that, during the same period, The Prophecies reportedly came into usein France as a classroom reader. [46]

Nostradamus's reliance on historical precedent is reflected in the fact that he explicitly rejected thelabel "prophet" (i.e. a person having prophetic powers of his own) on several occasions:[47]

Although, my son, I have used the word prophet, I would not attribute to myself a title ofsuch lofty sublimity—Preface to César, 1555 (see caption to illustration above) [48]

Not that I would attribute to myself either the name or the role of a prophet—Preface toCésar, 1555[48]

[S]ome of [the prophets] predicted great and marvelous things to come: [though] for me,I in no way attribute to myself such a title here.—Letter to King Henry II, 1558[49]

Not that I am foolish enough to claim to be a prophet.—Open letter to Privy Councillor(later Chancellor) Birague, 15 June 1566[47]

Detail from title-page of the original 1555 (Albi)edition of Nostradamus's Les Propheties

His rejection of the title prophet is consistent with the fact[50] that he entitled his book Les Prophetiesde M. Michel Nostradamus (a title that, in French, as easily means "The Prophecies, by M. MichelNostradamus"—which is what they were—as "The Prophecies of M. Michel Nostradamus", which,except in a few cases, they were not, other than in the manner of their editing, expression andreapplication to the future).

Given this reliance on literary sources, it is doubtful [51]

whether Nostradamus used any particular methods forentering a trance state, other than contemplation,meditation and incubation. His sole description of thisprocess is contained in letter 41[52] of his collected Latincorrespondence.[53] The popular legend that he attemptedthe ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or bothsimultaneously is based on a naive reading of his first twoverses, which merely liken his efforts to those of theDelphic and Branchidic oracles. The first of these is reproduced at the bottom of this article and thesecond can be seen by visiting the relevant facsimile site (see External Links). In his dedication to KingHenri II, Nostradamus describes "emptying my soul, mind and heart of all care, worry and uneasethrough mental calm and tranquility", but his frequent references to the "bronze tripod" of the Delphicrite are usually preceded by the words "as though" (compare, once again, External References to theoriginal texts).

Interpretations

Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions,murders, droughts, and battles—all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber.Some quatrains cover these disasters in overall terms; others concern a single person or small groupof people. Some cover a single town, others several towns in several countries. A major, underlyingtheme is an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from farther east and south headed by theexpected Antichrist, directly reflecting the then-current Ottoman invasions and the earlier Saracenequivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the Mirabilis Liber.[54] All of this is presented in thecontext of the supposedly imminent end of the world—even though this is not in fact mentioned[55]—aconviction that sparked numerous collections of end-time prophecies at the time, including anunpublished collection by Christopher Columbus.[56]

Nostradamus has been credited, for the most part in hindsight, with predicting numerous events inworld history, from the Great Fire of London, and the rise of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler, to theSeptember 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[26] In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be ableto contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him 'interpreting' his own verse X.6 (a predictionspecifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nîmes and people taking refuge in itscollosse, or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the Arènes) as a prediction of anundated attack on the Pentagon, despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter toKing Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor.[57] Skepticssuch as James Randi suggest that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-daysupporters who fit his words to events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to beinevitable, a process sometimes known as "retroactive clairvoyance" (postdiction). Thus, noNostradamus quatrain is known to have been interpreted as predicting a specific event before itoccurred, other than in vague, general terms that could equally apply to any number of other events.[58]

This even applies to quatrains that contain specific dates, such as III.77, which predicts "in 1727, inOctober, the king of Persia [shall be] captured by those of Egypt"—a prophecy that has, as ever, beeninterpreted retrospectively in the light of later events, in this case as though it presaged the knownpeace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Persia of that year.[59] Similarly, Nostradamus's

notorious '1999' prophecy at X.72 (see Nostradamus in popular culture) describes no event thatcommentators have succeeded in identifying either before or since, other than by dint of twisting thewords to fit whichever of the many contradictory happenings they are keen to claim as 'hits'.[60]

Moreover no quatrain suggests, as is often claimed by books and films on the alleged MayanProphecy, that the world would end in December 2012.[61] In his preface to the Prophecies,Nostradamus himself stated that his prophecies extend 'from now to the year 3797'[62]—anextraordinary date which, given that the preface was written in 1555, may have more than a little to dowith the fact that 2242 (3797 − 1555) had recently been proposed by his major astrological sourceRichard Roussat as a possible date for the end of the world.[63][64]

Alternative views

A range of quite different views are expressed in printed literature and on the Internet. At one end of thespectrum, there are extreme academic views such as those of Jacques Halbronn, suggesting at greatlength and with great complexity that Nostradamus's Prophecies are antedated forgeries written bylater hands with a political axe to grind.[65] No other major source accepts this view [see reference-list].

At the other end of the spectrum, there are numerous fairly recent popular books, and thousands ofprivate websites, suggesting not only that the Prophecies are genuine but that Nostradamus was a trueprophet. Due to the subjective nature of these interpretations, however, no two of them agree onexactly what he predicted, whether for the past or for the future.[66] Many of these do agree, though,that particular predictions refer, for example, to the French Revolution, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler,[67][d]

both world wars, and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is also an evidentconsensus among popular authors that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at thetime of each book's publication, from the Apollo moon landings, through the death of Diana, Princess ofWales in 1997, and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986,[68] to the events of 9/11: this'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.[66]

Possibly the first of these books to become popular in English was Henry C. Roberts' The CompleteProphecies of Nostradamus of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during the next forty years, whichcontained both transcriptions and translations, with brief commentaries. This was followed in 1961(reprinted in 1982) by Edgar Leoni's Nostradamus and His Prophecies. After that came ErikaCheetham's The Prophecies of Nostradamus, incorporating a reprint of the posthumous 1568 edition,which was reprinted, revised and republished several times from 1973 onwards, latterly as The FinalProphecies of Nostradamus. This served as the basis for the documentary The Man Who SawTomorrow and both did indeed mention possible generalised future attacks on New York (via nuclearweapons), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date. [69] A two-parttranslation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's Nostradamus: historien et prophète was published in 1980,and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987 includingNostradamus and the Millenium: Predictions of the Future, Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies(1999) and Nostradamus: A Life and Myth (2003).

With the exception of Roberts, these books and their many popular imitators were almost unanimousnot merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy, but also about various aspects of hisbiography.[70] He had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar; he had been educated by hisgrandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King René of Provence; he hadattended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree; after returning there in 1529, he hadsuccessfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there, untilhis views became too unpopular; he had supported the heliocentric view of the universe; he hadtravelled to the north-east of France, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in thecourse of his travels, he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying a future Pope; hehad successfully cured the Plague at Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere; he had engaged in scrying,using either a magic mirror or a bowl of water; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter

1554; having published the first installment of his Propheties, he had been summoned by QueenCatherine de' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husbandKing Henri II would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at Blois; he had bequeathedto his son a "lost book" of his own prophetic paintings;[e] he had been buried standing up; and he hadbeen found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date ofhis disinterment.[71]

Curiously, this particular story seems to have been first recorded by Samuel Pepys as early as 1667,long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated diary a legend that, before hisdeath, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but that 60years later his body was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly statingthe date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers.[72]

From the 1980s onwards, however, an academic reaction set in, especially in France. The publicationin 1983 of Nostradamus's private correspondence[73] and, during succeeding years, of the originaleditions of 1555 and 1557 discovered by Chomarat and Benazra, together with the unearthing of muchoriginal archival material[35][74] revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus did not fit thedocumented facts. The academics[35][71][74][75] revealed that not one of the claims just listed wasbacked up by any known contemporary documentary evidence. Most of them had evidently beenbased on unsourced rumours relayed as fact by much later commentators, such as Jaubert (1656),Guynaud (1693) and Bareste (1840), on modern misunderstandings of the 16th-century French texts,or on pure invention. Even the often-advanced suggestion that quatrain I.35 had successfullyprophesied King Henri II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 yearsafter the event.[76][77]

Additionally, the academics,[78][75][79] who themselves tend to eschew any attempt at interpretation,complained that the English translations were usually of poor quality, seemed to display little or noknowledge of 16th-century French, were tendentious and, at worst, were sometimes twisted to fit theevents to which they were supposed to refer (or vice versa). None of them were based on the originaleditions: Roberts had based his writings on that of 1672, Cheetham and Hogue on the posthumousedition of 1568. Even Leoni accepted on page 115 that he had never seen an original edition, and onearlier pages he indicated that much of his biographical material was unsourced.[80]

However, none of this research and criticism was originally known to most of the English-languagecommentators, by function of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, of the language inwhich it was written.[81] Hogue was in a position to take advantage of it, but it was only in 2003 that heaccepted that some of his earlier biographical material had in fact been apocryphal. Meanwhile someof the more recent sources listed (Lemesurier, Gruber, Wilson) have been particularly scathing aboutlater attempts by some lesser-known authors and Internet enthusiasts to extract alleged hiddenmeanings from the texts, whether with the aid of anagrams, numerical codes, graphs or otherwise.[66]

In popular cultureMain article: Nostradamus in popular culture

The prophecies retold and expanded by Nostradamus figured largely in popular culture in the 20th and21st centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and nonfiction),Nostradamus's life has been depicted in several films and videos, and his life and writings continue tobe a subject of media interest.

There have also been several well-known Internet hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamushave been circulated by e-mail as the real thing. The best-known examples concern the collapse of theWorld Trade Center in the 11 September attacks, which led both to hoaxes and to reinterpretations by

enthusiasts of several quatrains as supposed prophecies.[82]

With the arrival of the year 2012, Nostradamus's prophecies started to be co-opted (especially by theHistory Channel) as evidence suggesting that the end of the world was imminent, notwithstanding thefact that his book never mentions the end of the world, let alone the year 2012.[83]

See also

For comparison with another predictive protoscience see Alchemy.

Divination

List of astrologers

Mysticism

Roger Frontenac

Vaticinia Nostradami

References

Notes

1. ^ Refer to the analysis of these charts by Brind'Amour, 1993, and compare Gruber'scomprehensive critique of Nostradamus’ horoscope for Crown Prince Rudolph Maximilian.

2. ^ See Savonarola and Nostradamus text comparison

3. ^ Anonymous letters to the Mercure de France in August and November 1724 drew specificpublic attention to the fact (Anonyme) Lettre critique sur la personne et sur les écrits de MichelNostradamus, Mercure de France, août et novembre 1724 (Comment in the French Wikipediaarticle on Nostradamus : "Relève, dans un esprit rationaliste, des coïncidences entre certainsquatrains des Prophéties et des évènements antérieurs à la publication de ces quatrains. Toutn'est pas également convaincant, mais on repoussera difficilement, par exemple, lerapprochement entre le quatrain VIII, 72 et le siège de Ravenne de 1512.")

4. ^ In several quatrains he mentions the name Hister (somewhat resembling Hitler), although thisis the classical name for the Lower Danube, as he himself explains in his Presage for 1554.Similarly, the expression Pau, Nay, Loron—often interpreted as an anagram of "NapaulonRoy"—refers to three towns in southwestern France near his one-time home.

5. ^ Actually the 13th–14th century Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus in a misascribed versionsometimes referred to as the Vaticinia Nostradami

References

1. ^ a b Most eyewitnesses to his original epitaph (including his son Caesar and historian HonoréBouche) indicate 21 December, but a few (including his secretary Chavigny) suggest 14th. Theinscription on his present tombstone evidently follows Chavigny. No conclusive explanation forthe discrepancy has so far been discovered. See Guinard, Patrice, CURA Forum

2. ^ English pronunciation: /nɑːstrəˈdɑːməs, ˌnoʊs-, -ˈdeɪ-/ (Merriam-Webster); /nɒstrəˈdɑːməs/(Collins English Dictionary: "Nostradamus"); /nɒstrəˈdɑːməs, -ˈdeɪ-/ (Oxford EnglishDictionary); /ˌnɒstrəˈdeɪməs, -ˈdɑː-, ˈnoʊstrə-/ (Random House Webster's UnabridgedDictionary: "Nostradamus").

3. ^ a b c Lemesurier 2010.

4. ^ Benazra 1990.

5. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 150-2.

6. ^ See Le Pelletier, Anatole, Les Oracles de Michel de Nostredame, Le Pelletier, 1867

7. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 24.

8. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 143-6.

9. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 32-51.

10. ^ Lemesurier 1999, p. 24-5.

11. ^ Chavigny, J.A. de: La première face du Janus françois... (Lyon, 1594)

12. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 545.

13. ^ Benazra, R, Espace Nostradamus

14. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 48-9.

15. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 2.

16. ^ Nostradamus, Michel, Traite des fardemens et des confitures , 1555, 1556, 1557

17. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 60-91.

18. ^ Kuzneski 2000.

19. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 62-71.

20. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 110-133.

21. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 130, 132, 369.

22. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 23-5.

23. ^ a b Chevignard 1999.

24. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 59-64.

25. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 326-399.

26. ^ a b Gruber 2003.

27. ^ Gregorio, Mario. "Centuries of Nostradamus". Propheties.it. Retrieved 20 March 2010.

28. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 125.

29. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 99-100.

30. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 83.

31. ^ Lemesurier 2003.

32. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 124.

33. ^ Leroy 1972, p. 102-106.

34. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 137.

35. ^ a b c Leroy 1972.

36. ^ a b c "Bibliotheque". Repertoire Chronologique Nostradamus.

37. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 14, 435.

38. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 22-33.

39. ^ Nostradamus 1555/6/7, p. 11.

40. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 183.

41. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 144-5.

42. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 236.

43. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 70-76.

44. ^ Lemesurier (2) & 2003 passim.

45. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 100, 233–5.

46. ^ Garencieres 1672.

47. ^ a b Lemesurier 2003, p. 109.

48. ^ a b "Preface to César". Nostradamus-repository.org. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2011.

49. ^ "Letter to Henri II". Nostradamus-repository.org. 24 June 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2011.

50. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 100.

51. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 98.

52. ^ "facsimile of letter". Propheties.it. 16 April 2005 . Retrieved 17 April 2011.

53. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 41, 225-9.

54. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. xii-xviii.

55. ^ Nostradamus, M., Les Propheties, 1568 omnibus edition

56. ^ Watts 1985, p. 73-102.

57. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 145.

58. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 23.

59. ^ See, for example, Cheetham, Erika, The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus, Futura, 1990,pp.208-9

60. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 21-2.

61. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 41.

62. ^ Nostradamus & 1555 Preface.

63. ^ Roussat, R., Livre de l'etat et mutations des temps , Lyon, 1550, p. 95; Brinette, B, RichardRoussat: Livre de l'etat et mutations des temps, introduction et traductions, 1550 (undateddossier)

64. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 53.

65. ^ See his many papers in Benazra's academic forum at http://ramkat.free.fr/analyse.html

66. ^ a b c Lemesurier 2003, p. 144-8.

67. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 36.

68. ^ "CI, Q81". Maar.us. Retrieved 20 March 2010.

69. ^ See, for example, Cheetham, Erika, The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus, Futura, 1990,p.373

70. ^ Refer to titles mentioned.

71. ^ a b Lemesurier 2010, p. 26-45.

72. ^ Samuel Pepys' Diary, 3 February 1667

73. ^ Dupèbe 1983.

74. ^ a b Brind'Amour 1993.

75. ^ a b Randi 1993.

76. ^ Lemesurier 2003, p. 28-30.

77. ^ Brind'Amour 1993, p. 267.

78. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 144.

79. ^ Wilson 2002.

80. ^ Leoni 2000, p. 115.

81. ^ Lemesurier 2010, p. 144-8.

82. ^ "False prophesy". Snopes.com. Retrieved 20 March 2010.

83. ^ Lemesurier, P. 2012, It's Not the End of the World, Derwen, 2011

Bibliography

Nostradamus, Michel::Orus Apollo, 1545 (?), unpublished ms; Almanachs, Presages andPronostications, 1550–1567; Ein Erschrecklich und Wunderbarlich Zeychen..., Nuremberg,1554; Les Propheties, Lyon, 1555, 1557, 1568; Traite des fardemens et des confitures , 1555,1556, 1557; Paraphrase de C. Galen sus l'exhortation de Menodote , 1557; Lettre de MaistreMichel Nostradamus, de Salon de Craux en Provence, A la Royne mere du Roy, 1566

Benazra, Robert (1990). Répertoire chronologique nostradamique: 1545-1989. Éd. la Grandeconjonction. ISBN 978-2-85707-418-2.

Brind'Amour, Pierre (1993). Nostradamus astrophile: les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie etl'œuvre de Nostradamus. Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa. ISBN 978-2-252-02896-4.

Brind'Amour, Pierre (1996). Les premières centuries, ou, Prophéties: (édition Macé Bonhommede 1555). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-00138-0.

Chevignard, Bernard (1999). Présages de Nostradamus. Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-035960-3.

Chomarat, Michel; Laroche, Jean-Paul (1989). Bibliographie Nostradamus: XVIe-XVIIe-XVIIIesiècles. Koerner. ISBN 978-3-87320-123-1.

Clébert, Jean-Paul (2003). Prophéties de Nostradamus: les centuries : texte intégral (1550-1568). Relié. ISBN 978-2-914916-35-6.

Dupèbe, Jean (1983). Lettres inédites. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-03107-3.

Gruber, Elmar R. (2003). Nostradamus: Sein Leben, sein Werk und die wahre Bedeutung seinerProphezeiungen. Scherz Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-502-15280-4.

Lemesurier, Peter (1 April 1999). The Nostradamus Encyclopedia: The Definitive ReferenceGuide to the Work and World of Nostradamus. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-19994-4.

Lemesurier, Peter (1 November 2003). The Unknown Nostradamus: The Essential Biography forHis 500th Birthday. John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-903816-48-6.

Lemesurier (2), Peter (1 November 2003). Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies. John HuntPublishing. ISBN 978-1-903816-48-6.

Lemesurier, Peter (20 August 2010). Nostradamus, Bibliomancer: The Man, the Myth, the Truth.Career PressInc. ISBN 978-1-60163-132-9.

Leroy, Edgar (1972). Nostradamus: Ses origines, sa vie, son oeuvre . Jeanne Laffitte. ISBN 978-2-86276-231-9.

Prévost, Roger (1999). Nostradamus, le mythe et la réalité: un historien au temps desastrologues. le Grand livre du mois. ISBN 978-2-7028-3581-4.

Randi, James (1 September 1990). The mask of Nostradamus. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-19056-3.

Rollet, Pierre (1993). Interprétation des hiéroglyphes de Horapollo. M. Petit.

Watts, P.M. (1985). Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus''Enterprise of the Indies. American Historical Review.

Wilson, Ian (March 2004). Nostradamus: The Evidence. Orion Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-7528-4279-0.

Further reading

Gerson, Stéphane. Nostradamus: How an Obscure Renaissance Astrologer Became theModern Prophet of Doom (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012) 347pp

Leoni, Edgar. Nostradamus and his prophecies (Dover Publications, 2000)

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