Nostradamus

en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Nostradamus
For other uses, see Nostradamus (disambiguation).

Michel de Nostredame
Nostradamus: original
portrait by his son Cesar

Born

14 December or 21 December 1503

Saint-Rmy-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), usually
Latinised as Nostradamus,[2] was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of
prophecies 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 been
out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with much of the popular
press, credits him with predicting many major world events.[3][4] Most academic sources maintain that
the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of
misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them
useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power.[5] Nevertheless, occasional commentators have
successfully used a process of free interpretation and determined "twisting" of his words to predict an
apparently imminent event. For example, in 1867 (three years before it happened), Le Pelletier did so
to anticipate either the triumph or the defeat of Napoleon III in a war that, in the event, begged to be
identified as the Franco-Prussian War, while admitting that he could not specify either which or when. [6]

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-Rmy-de-Provence,
Provence, France, where his claimed birthplace still exists, Michel
de Nostredame was one of at least nine children of Reynire (or
Rene) de Saint-Rmy and grain dealer and notary Jaume (or
Jacques) de Nostredame. The latter's family had originally been
Jewish, but Jaume's father, Guy Gassonet, had converted to
Catholicism around 1455, taking the Christian name "Pierre" and
the surname "Nostredame" (meaning Our Lady, the saint's day on
which his conversion was solemnised).[7] Michel's known siblings
included Delphine, Jean I (c. 150777), Pierre, Hector, Louis,
Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523).[8][9][10] Little
else is known about his childhood, although there is a persistent
tradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfather
Jean de St. Rmy[11] a tradition which is somewhat undermined
by the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after
1504, when the child was only one year old.[12]

Nostredame's claimed birthplace

before its recent renovation, SaintRmy-de-Provence

Student years
At the age of 15[3] Nostredame entered the University of
Avignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a
year (when he would have studied the regular trivium of
grammar, rhetoric and logic, rather than the later quadrivium of
geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy/astrology), he was
forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors in
the face of an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon,
Municipal plaque on the claimed birthplace of
Nostradamus in St-Rmy, France, describing
Nostredame (according to his own account) travelled the
him as an 'astrologer' and giving his birthcountryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal
date as 14 December 1503 (Julian Calendar)
remedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, he
entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in
medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards by the university's procurator, Guillaume Rondelet, when
it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university
statutes,[13] and had been slandering doctors. [14] The expulsion document (BIU Montpellier, Register S
2 folio 87) still exists in the faculty library.[15] However, some of his publishers and correspondents
would later call him "Doctor". After his expulsion, Nostredame continued working, presumably still as an
apothecary, and became famous for creating a "rose pill" that supposedly protected against the
plague.[16]

Marriage and healing work

In 1531 Nostredame was invited by Jules-Csar Scaliger, a leading Renaissance scholar, to come to
Agen.[17] There he married a woman of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), who bore him
two children. [18] In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, he
continued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy.[19]
On his return in 1545, he assisted the prominent physician Louis
Serre in his fight against a major plague outbreak in Marseille, and
then tackled further outbreaks of disease on his own in Salon-deProvence and in the regional capital, Aix-en-Provence. Finally, in
1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which exists
today, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, with
whom he had six childrenthree daughters and three sons.[20]
Between 1556 and 1567 he and his wife acquired a one-thirteenth
share in a huge canal project organised by Adam de Craponne to
irrigate largely waterless Salon-de-Provence and the nearby Dsert
de la Crau from the river Durance.[21]

Seer
After another visit to Italy, Nostredame began to move away from
medicine and toward the occult. Following popular trends, he wrote
an almanac for 1550, for the first time Latinising his name from
Nostredame to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the
almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually.

Nostradamus's house at Salon-deProvence, as reconstructed after the

1909 Lambesc earthquake

Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies,[22][23] as well as at least
eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in
March. It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from
far away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic" advice from him, though he generally
expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating
them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on

the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures
for his clients' place or time of birth.[24][25][a][26]
He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand
mainly French quatrains,[27] which constitute the largely
undated 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 by
using "Virgilianised" syntax, word games and a mixture of
other languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, and

Century I, Quatrain 1: 1555 Lyon Bonhomme

Provenal.[29] For technical reasons connected with their

edition
publication in three installments (the publisher of the third
and last installment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a "Century," or book of 100
verses), 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 reaction
when 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 Mdicis, wife of King Henry II of
France, was one of Nostradamus' greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted
at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up
horoscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded,[30] but by the time of his
death in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, the
young King Charles IX of France.
Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by the
Inquisition, but neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he would have been in danger
only if he had practiced magic to support them. In fact, his relationship with the Church was always
excellent.[31] His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 came about purely because he had
published his 1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop, contrary to a recent royal
decree.[32]

Final years and death

By 1566, Nostradamus's gout, which had plagued him
painfully for many years and made movement very difficult,
turned into edema, or dropsy. In late June he summoned
his lawyer to draw up an extensive will bequeathing his
property plus 3,444 crowns (around $300,000 US today),
minus a few debts, to his wife pending her remarriage, in
trust for her sons pending their twenty-fifth birthdays and
her daughters pending their marriages. This was followed

Nostradamus' current tomb in the Collgiale

Saint-Laurent, Salon, into which his scattered
remains were transferred after 1789.

by a much shorter codicil.[33] On the evening of 1 July, he is

alleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "You
will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead, lying on the floor
next to his bed and a bench (Presage 141 [originally 152] for November 1567, as posthumously edited
by Chavigny to fit what happened).[34][23] He was buried in the local Franciscan chapel in Salon (part
of it now incorporated into the restaurant La Brocherie) but re-interred during the French Revolution in
the Collgiale 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 was
published in 1555 and contained 353 quatrains.[36] The second, with 289 further prophetic verses, was

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 that
was published after his death in 1568. This version
contains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped
into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries".[36]
Given printing practices at the time (which included typesetting from dictation), no two editions turned out to be
identical, and it is relatively rare to find even two copies that
are exactly the same. Certainly there is no warrant for
assumingas would-be "code-breakers" are prone to do
that either the spellings or the punctuation of any edition are

Nostradamus statue in Salon-de-Provence

Nostradamus' originals.[37]
The Almanacs, by far the most popular of his works, [38]
were published annually from 1550 until his death. He often
published two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs
(detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (more
generalised predictions).
Nostradamus was not only a diviner, but a professional
healer. It is known that he wrote at least two books on
medical science. One was an extremely free translation (or
Copy of Garencires' 1672 English translation of
rather a paraphrase) of The Protreptic of Galen
the Prophecies, located in The P.I. Nixon Medical
(Paraphrase de C. GALIEN, sus l'Exhortation de Menodote
History Library of The University of Texas Health
Science Center at San Antonio.
aux estudes des bonnes Artz, mesmement Medicine), and
in his so-called Trait des fardemens (basically a medical
cookbook containing, once again, materials borrowed mainly from others) he included a description of
the 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, where
upwards of 2,000 original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under the aegis of Michel
Chomarat. It is a purported translation of an ancient Greek work on Egyptian hieroglyphs based on
later Latin versions, all of them unfortunately ignorant of the true meanings of the ancient Egyptian
script, 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 been
quite extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have appeared in that time, together with
over 2,000 commentaries. Their popularity seems to be partly due to the fact that their vagueness and
lack of dating make it easy to quote them selectively after every major dramatic event and
retrospectively claim them as "hits" (see Nostradamus in popular culture). [41]

Origins of The Prophecies

Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrologythe 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 Laurens
Videl[42] for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" (the comparison of future
planetary configurations with those accompanying known past events) could actually predict what
would happen in the future.[43]
Research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-world
prophecies (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 is
mentioned only twice in Nostradamus's Preface and 41 times in the Centuries themselves, but more
frequently in his dedicatory Letter to King Henry II. In the last quatrain of his sixth century he
specifically attacks astrologers.
His historical sources include easily identifiable passages from Livy, Suetonius, Plutarch and other
classical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Jean
Froissart. Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat's
Livre de l'estat et mutations des temps of 154950.
One of his major prophetic sources was evidently the Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a range
of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others (his
Preface contains 24 biblical quotations, all but two in the order used by Savonarola). [b] This book had
enjoyed considerable success in the 1520s, when it went through half a dozen editions but did not
sustain its influence, perhaps owing to its mostly Latin text, Gothic script and many difficult
abbreviations. Nostradamus was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French, which
may explain why they are credited to him. It should be noted that modern views of plagiarism did not
apply in the 16th century. Authors frequently copied and paraphrased passages without
acknowledgement, especially from the classics. The latest research suggests that he may in fact have
used bibliomancy for thisrandomly selecting a book of history or prophecy and taking his cue from
whatever page it happened to fall open at.[3]
Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus,[45] which
included 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 4thcentury Neo-Platonist. Latin versions of both had recently been published in Lyon, and extracts from
both are paraphrased (in the second case almost literally) in his first two verses, the first of which is
appended to this article. While it is true that Nostradamus claimed in 1555 to have burned all of the
occult 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 use
in France as a classroom reader. [46]
Nostradamus's reliance on historical precedent is reflected in the fact that he explicitly rejected the
label "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 of
such lofty sublimityPreface to Csar, 1555 (see caption to illustration above) [48]

Not that I would attribute to myself either the name or the role of a prophetPreface to
Csar, 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]

His rejection of the title prophet is consistent with the fact [50] that he entitled his book Les Propheties
de M. Michel Nostradamus (a title that, in French, as easily means "The Prophecies, by M. Michel
Nostradamus"which is what they wereas "The Prophecies of M. Michel Nostradamus", which,
except in a few cases, they were not, other than in the manner of their editing, expression and
reapplication to the future).
Given this reliance on literary sources, it is doubtful [51]
whether Nostradamus used any particular methods for
entering a trance state, other than contemplation,
meditation and incubation. His sole description of this
process is contained in letter 41 [52] of his collected Latin
correspondence.[53] The popular legend that he attempted
Detail from title-page of the original 1555 (Albi)
the ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or both
edition of Nostradamus's Les Propheties
simultaneously is based on a naive reading of his first two
verses, which merely liken his efforts to those of the
Delphic and Branchidic oracles. The first of these is reproduced at the bottom of this article and the
second can be seen by visiting the relevant facsimile site (see External Links). In his dedication to King
Henri II, Nostradamus describes "emptying my soul, mind and heart of all care, worry and unease
through mental calm and tranquility", but his frequent references to the "bronze tripod" of the Delphic
rite are usually preceded by the words "as though" (compare, once again, External References to the
original texts).

Interpretations
Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions,
murders, droughts, and battlesall undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber.
Some quatrains cover these disasters in overall terms; others concern a single person or small group
of people. Some cover a single town, others several towns in several countries. A major, underlying
theme is an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from farther east and south headed by the
expected Antichrist, directly reflecting the then-current Ottoman invasions and the earlier Saracen
equivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the Mirabilis Liber.[54] All of this is presented in the
context of the supposedly imminent end of the worldeven though this is not in fact mentioned[55]a
conviction that sparked numerous collections of end-time prophecies at the time, including an
unpublished collection by Christopher Columbus.[56]
Nostradamus has been credited, for the most part in hindsight, with predicting numerous events in
world history, from the Great Fire of London, and the rise of Napoleon and Adolf Hitler, to the
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[26] In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be able
to contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him 'interpreting' his own verse X.6 (a prediction
specifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nmes and people taking refuge in its
collosse, or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the Arnes) as a prediction of an
undated attack on the Pentagon, despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter to
King Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor.[57] Skeptics
such as James Randi suggest that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-day
supporters who fit his words to events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to be
inevitable, a process sometimes known as "retroactive clairvoyance" (postdiction). Thus, no
Nostradamus quatrain is known to have been interpreted as predicting a specific event before it
occurred, 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, in
October, the king of Persia [shall be] captured by those of Egypt"a prophecy that has, as ever, been
interpreted retrospectively in the light of later events, in this case as though it presaged the known
peace 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 that
commentators have succeeded in identifying either before or since, other than by dint of twisting the
words 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 Mayan
Prophecy, 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]an
extraordinary date which, given that the preface was written in 1555, may have more than a little to do
with the fact that 2242 (3797 1555) had recently been proposed by his major astrological source
Richard 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 the
spectrum, there are extreme academic views such as those of Jacques Halbronn, suggesting at great
length and with great complexity that Nostradamus's Prophecies are antedated forgeries written by
later 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 of
private websites, suggesting not only that the Prophecies are genuine but that Nostradamus was a true
prophet. Due to the subjective nature of these interpretations, however, no two of them agree on
exactly 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 evident
consensus among popular authors that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the
time of each book's publication, from the Apollo moon landings, through the death of Diana, Princess of
Wales 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 Complete
Prophecies of Nostradamus of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during the next forty years, which
contained 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 Erika
Cheetham'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 Final
Prophecies of Nostradamus. This served as the basis for the documentary The Man Who Saw
Tomorrow and both did indeed mention possible generalised future attacks on New York (via nuclear
weapons), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date. [69] A two-part
translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's Nostradamus: historien et prophte was published in 1980,
and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987 including
Nostradamus 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 unanimous
not merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy, but also about various aspects of his
biography.[70] He had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar; he had been educated by his
grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King Ren of Provence; he had
attended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree; after returning there in 1529, he had
successfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there, until
his views became too unpopular; he had supported the heliocentric view of the universe; he had
travelled to the north-east of France, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in the
course of his travels, he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying a future Pope; he
had 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 Queen
Catherine de' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husband
King Henri II would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at Blois; he had bequeathed
to his son a "lost book" of his own prophetic paintings;[e] he had been buried standing up; and he had
been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of
his 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 his
death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but that 60
years later his body was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating
the 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 publication
in 1983 of Nostradamus's private correspondence[73] and, during succeeding years, of the original
editions of 1555 and 1557 discovered by Chomarat and Benazra, together with the unearthing of much
original archival material[35][74] revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus did not fit the
documented facts. The academics[35][71][74][75] revealed that not one of the claims just listed was
backed up by any known contemporary documentary evidence. Most of them had evidently been
based 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 successfully
prophesied King Henri II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 years
after 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 no
knowledge of 16th-century French, were tendentious and, at worst, were sometimes twisted to fit the
events to which they were supposed to refer (or vice versa). None of them were based on the original
editions: Roberts had based his writings on that of 1672, Cheetham and Hogue on the posthumous
edition of 1568. Even Leoni accepted on page 115 that he had never seen an original edition, and on
earlier 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-language
commentators, by function of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, of the language in
which it was written.[81] Hogue was in a position to take advantage of it, but it was only in 2003 that he
accepted that some of his earlier biographical material had in fact been apocryphal. Meanwhile some
of the more recent sources listed (Lemesurier, Gruber, Wilson) have been particularly scathing about
later attempts by some lesser-known authors and Internet enthusiasts to extract alleged hidden
meanings from the texts, whether with the aid of anagrams, numerical codes, graphs or otherwise.[66]

In popular culture
Main article: Nostradamus in popular culture
The prophecies retold and expanded by Nostradamus figured largely in popular culture in the 20th and
21st 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 to
be a subject of media interest.
There have also been several well-known Internet hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus
have been circulated by e-mail as the real thing. The best-known examples concern the collapse of the
World 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 the
History Channel) as evidence suggesting that the end of the world was imminent, notwithstanding the
fact 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's
comprehensive 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 specific
public attention to the fact (Anonyme) Lettre critique sur la personne et sur les crits de Michel
Nostradamus, Mercure de France, aot et novembre 1724 (Comment in the French Wikipedia
article on Nostradamus : "Relve, dans un esprit rationaliste, des concidences entre certains
quatrains des Prophties et des vnements antrieurs la publication de ces quatrains. Tout
n'est pas galement convaincant, mais on repoussera difficilement, par exemple, le
rapprochement entre le quatrain VIII, 72 et le sige de Ravenne de 1512.")
4. ^ In several quatrains he mentions the name Hister (somewhat resembling Hitler), although this
is the classical name for the Lower Danube, as he himself explains in his Presage for 1554.
Similarly, the expression Pau, Nay, Loronoften interpreted as an anagram of "Napaulon
Roy"refers to three towns in southwestern France near his one-time home.
5. ^ Actually the 13th14th century Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus in a misascribed version
sometimes referred to as the Vaticinia Nostradami
References
1. ^ a b Most eyewitnesses to his original epitaph (including his son Caesar and historian Honor
Bouche) indicate 21 December, but a few (including his secretary Chavigny) suggest 14th. The
inscription on his present tombstone evidently follows Chavigny. No conclusive explanation for
the discrepancy has so far been discovered. See Guinard, Patrice, CURA Forum
2. ^ English pronunciation: /nstrdms, nos-, -de-/ (Merriam-Webster); /nstrdms/
(Collins English Dictionary: "Nostradamus"); /nstrdms, -de-/ (Oxford English
Dictionary); /nstrdems, -d-, nostr-/ (Random House Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary: "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 premire face du Janus franois... (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, 2335.

46. ^ Garencieres 1672.
47. ^ a b Lemesurier 2003, p. 109.
48. ^ a b "Preface to Csar". 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, Richard
Roussat: Livre de l'etat et mutations des temps, introduction et traductions, 1550 (undated
dossier)
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. ^ Dupbe 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
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Pronostications, 15501567; 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 Maistre
Michel Nostradamus, de Salon de Craux en Provence, A la Royne mere du Roy, 1566
Benazra, Robert (1990). Rpertoire chronologique nostradamique: 1545-1989. d. la Grande
conjonction. ISBN 978-2-85707-418-2.
Brind'Amour, Pierre (1993). Nostradamus astrophile: les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie et
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de 1555). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-00138-0.
Chevignard, Bernard (1999). Prsages de Nostradamus. Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-035960-3.
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sicles. Koerner. ISBN 978-3-87320-123-1.
Clbert, Jean-Paul (2003). Prophties de Nostradamus: les centuries : texte intgral (15501568). Reli. ISBN 978-2-914916-35-6.
Dupbe, Jean (1983). Lettres indites. Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-03107-3.
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Further reading

Gerson, Stphane. Nostradamus: How an Obscure Renaissance Astrologer Became the

Modern Prophet of Doom (New York: St. Martins Press, 2012) 347pp
Leoni, Edgar. Nostradamus and his prophecies (Dover Publications, 2000)

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