Nostradamus and His Prophecies

MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS

This portrait, painted by his son César from memory, hangs in the Bibliothèque Méjanes, Aix. (A copy hangs by Nostradamus’ tomb in Salon.)

War es ein Gott, der diese Zeichen schrieb?

(Was it a god who penned these signs?)

—GOETHE. Faust. Sc. 1

NOSTRADAMUS

and His Prophecies

INCLUDING

All the Prophecies in French and English,

With Complete Notes and Indexes

A Critical Biography of Nostradamus,

His Will and Personal Letters

Bibliography of Nostradamus and His Commentators

Historical, Geographical and Genealogical Background

A Review of Theories About Him, His Method and Other Supplementary Material

Edgar Leoni

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2000, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published in 1961 by the Exposition Press, New York under the title Nostradamus: Life and Literature.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nostradamus, 1503–1566.

[Prophéties. English & French]

Nostradamus and his prophecies / by Edgar Leoni.

    p. cm.

Including all the Prophecies in French and English, with complete notes and indexes, a critical biography of Nostradamus, his will and personal letters, bibliography of Nostradamus and his commentators, historical, geographical, and genealogical background, a review of theories about him, his method and other supplementary material.

Reprint. Originally published: Nostradamus: life and literature. New York: Exposition Press, 1961.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-486-41468-X

  1. Prophecies (Occultism). I. Leoni, Edgar. II. Title.

BF1815.N8 A213 2000

133.3′092—dc21

[B]

00-029513

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

To

MARY, ELLA and KITTY

TO FRANCE AFTER THE DISASTER OF SAINT-QUENTIN

Poem by Ronsard (1557)

Tu te moques aussi des prophètes que Dieu

Choisit en tes enfants, et les fait au milieu

De ton sein apparaître, afin de te prédire

Ton malheur avenir; mais tu n’en fais que rire:

Ou soit que du grand Dieu l’immense éternité,

Aît de Nostradamus l’enthousiasme excité,

Ou soit que de démon bon ou mauvais l’agite,

Ou soit que de nature il aît l’âme subite,

Et outre les mortels s’élance jusqu’aux cieux,

Et de 1à nous redit des faits prodigieux;

Ou soit que son esprit sombre et mélancolique,

D’humeurs crasses repu, se rende fantastique;

Brief il est ce qu’il est, si est-ce toutesfois,

Que par les mots douteux de sa prophète voix

Comme un oracle antique, il a de mainte année,

Prédit la plus grande part de nôtre destinée.

Je ne l’eusse pas cru, si le ciel qui départ

Bien et mal aux humains, n’eût été de sa part.

TRANSLATION

Thou mockest also the prophets that God chooses amongst thy children, and places in the midst of thy bosom, in order to predict to thee thy future misfortune.

But thou dost but laugh at them.

Perhaps it is the immense eternity of the great God that has aroused the fervor of Nostradamus.

Or perhaps a good or bad demon kindles it.

Or perhaps his spirit is moved by nature, and climbs to the heavens, beyond mortals, and from there repeats to us prodigious facts.

Or perhaps his somber and melancholy spirit is filled with crass humors, making him fanciful.

In brief, he is what he is; so it is that always with the doubtful words of his prophetic voice, like that of an ancient oracle, he has for many a year predicted the greater part of our destiny. I would not have believed him, had not Heaven, which assigns good and evil to mankind, been his inspiration.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

BIOGRAPHY OF NOSTRADAMUS

NOSTRADAMUS BIBLIOGRAPHY: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A. Works of Nostradamus

1. His Prophetic Works

2. His Professional Works

3. His Literary Works

B. Works of Commentators and Critics

NOSTRADAMUS BIBLIOGRAPHY: CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ORIGINAL TITLES

A. Works of Nostradamus

B. Works of Commentators and Critics

BACKGROUND AND RULES OF THE GAME

A. Summary Criticism Through the Ages

B. Inspiration

C. The Nature of the Prophecies

D. Nostradamus’ Rules of the Game

E. Rules of the Game in This Edition

THE PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS

PREFACE TO CESAR NOSTRADAMUS

CENTURIES I–VII

EPISTLE TO HENRY II

CENTURIES VIII–X

DUPLICATE AND FRAGMENTARY CENTURIES

PRESAGES

INDEXES TO THE PROPHECIES

A. General Index

B. Index by Subjects: A Summary Breakdown of the Quatrains

C. Geographical Names in the Prophecies

D. Unsolved, Uncertain or Enigmatic Proper Names

E. Unsolved or Uncertain Barbarisms

F. Time Specifications in the Prophecies

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE PROPHECIES

A. The Historical Setting

B. Chronology of Significant Dates

C. Genealogical Charts

1. The House of France

2. The House of Habsburg in Germany and Spain

COMMENTARIES

MISCELLANY

THE LETTER TO JEAN MOREL

LETTER TO THE CANONS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ORANGE

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS

PROPHECIES FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO NOSTRADAMUS

A. Sixains (1605)

B. The Anti-Mazarin Pair (1649)

C. The Prophecy of Olivarius (1820)

D. The Prophecy of Orval (1839)

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Works Connected With Nostradamus

B. Works Not Connected With Nostradamus

INDEX OF HISTORICAL AND EMINENT PERSONS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Nostradamus by his son

Nostradamus and young Henry of Navarre

Nostradamus’ tomb in the Church of St. Lawrence in Salon

Miscellaneous early editions of the prophecies

Real and false Benoist Rigaud editions

Real and false Pierre Rigaud editions

Map of Nostradamus’ Europe

Last page of the letter to Jean Morel

Astrological diagram in letter to the canons of the Cathedral of Orange

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to provide everything by and about Nostradamus. As the title suggests, it deals primarily with both Nostradamus’ life and the literature, mostly of a prophetic nature, produced by him. The literature about Nostradamus, so inextricably connected with his fame, is also the subject of considerable attention.

There is no particular design in this work for either the glorification or the debunking of Nostradamus. Indications of his seeming successes and his apparent failures in the prophetic field are dealt with, incidentally, in their place, as they arise.

After four hundred years, Nostradamus’ name has remained so well known that it has become the very synonym for successful prognostication. There would seem to be three pre-eminent reasons why this is so:

1. He is the most pretentious of all prophets: he states blandly in his Preface that his prophecies run until 3797.

2. Many of his prophecies lend themselves to repeated interpretations, so that they never seem to be out of date. It is but human nature that when a man sees a fairly specific and detailed prophecy that applies impressively to events of his own day, he does not wonder how often similar events have occurred before.

3. Nostradamus has had a multitude of ardent propagandists, the like of which no other prophet has been blessed with. His memory has never been allowed to pass into oblivion. Down through the centuries, as the interest aroused by one enthusiastic book began to wane, another appeared.

The number of works on Nostradamus in the English language is second only to that in French, and they range in quality from the very impressive to the utterly ridiculous. And yet, surprisingly, in the four hundred years since the prophecies were first published, there has been no truly complete translation, with even the minimum of scholarly precision that the term implies. There exists only a very superficial and careless work, replete with every kind of error, dating from 1672, and a recent reprint of it, whose added errors and modifications have further compounded the inadequacies of the original.

It is the aim of this book to fill the void and to provide a complete and definitive work on Nostradamus, not only with respect to the needed translation, but also on all other aspects of Nostradamus.

The heart of this book consists of the prophecies of Nostradamus with the original French and the English translation on facing pages. Details as to the source of the text, the new and original orthography and numbering system, the use of italics, pointers and footnotes, etc., will be found in the section entitled Background and Rules of the Game in This Edition (pp. 115–17). The reader will find there also the answer to many related questions and would do well to be familiar with it.

To provide the greatest possible assistance in comprehending the subject matter of the prophecies, this book includes also the following:

1. Commentary on each quatrain or paragraph of Nostradamus’ prophecies, explaining, insofar as possible, what he seems to have had in mind. Where this cannot be determined, some clarification is provided, at least on the geographical references and the like. The Commentaries also include many interpretations of the past, noteworthy for any of several reasons— fame, ingenuity, general interest, or downright asininity.

2. The Historical Background of the Prophecies, with a review of The Historical Setting and a Chronology of Significant Dates. The events listed are significant as undoubtedly influencing the subject matter of Nostradamus’ prophecies, with respect to the major part of the chronology. Events listed beyond the publication of the prophecies, and beyond Nostradamus’ death, provide a framework for consideration of some of the best-known applications and interpretations of the prophecies.

3. Two Genealogical Charts. The major one, The House of France, is probably the most comprehensive and large-scale arrangement of the subjects concerned ever published on a single chart. Another, more limited in scope, deals with the House of Habsburg. As the reader will find, when he becomes familiar with Nostradamus, the personal relationships of rival dynasties of the 16th century occupy a great deal of Nostradamus’ attention.

4. A map of Nostradamus’ Europe, giving the reader a graphic picture of the very different Europe in which the prophet lived.

5. A series of Indexes to the Prophecies, the most complete ever published in any language, to assist the reader in promptly locating what is of most interest to him. In addition to the massive General Index, more specialized indexes provide breakdowns of dated prophecies, of geographical setting, of cryptic words and proper names and various other categories.

Any study of Nostradamus must needs involve a consideration of bibliography—the history of the earliest editions of his prophecies as well as the history of the works of his commentators, to whom he owes his lasting fame. The two-part Nostradamus Bibliography provides the most complete treatment in any language of both the earliest editions of Nostradamus and virtually all the works of his commentators for four centuries.

The literature of Nostradamus, of necessity, occupies the greatest part of this book. But the life of Nostradamus himself is of hardly less interest. The Biography of Nostradamus, with which this book begins, may perhaps be the most complete in any language with respect to genuine biography, although there are several heavily-padded books on only this aspect of Nostradamus. It is of a considerably more critical nature than most biographies of the prophet presented by his propagandists, and includes a substantial amount of new material in this field. In addition to the biography proper, this book contains the complete original text and complete translation (on facing pages, like the prophecies) of three other biographical features now published for the first time:

1. Nostradamus’ last will and testament, and its codicil

2. Nostradamus’ letter to a M. Morel of Paris

3. Nostradamus’ letter to the canons of the Cathedral of Orange, in which he plays clairvoyant detective over some stolen property

While this book is only incidentally concerned with the general topic of prophecy and, more particularly, with the source or basis of Nostradamus’ prophecies, this subject is also dealt with in the section entitled Background and Rules of the Game. All the various theories are presented, and some conclusions are advanced. This section also deals with the purely technical aspects of the prophecies, both on the part of Nostradamus in the 16th century, and on the part of the present author and translator.

A passing reference to one other section is in order. It is surely the least significant. In the Miscellany portion of the book, which contains also the will and the letters referred to above, are found prophecies falsely attributed to Nostradamus. Some have been accepted by many of the Nostradamian propagandists; others have fooled practically nobody.

Finally, occupying a traditional spot at the end, the reader will find yet another index. Entitled Index of Historical and Eminent Persons, it is a rather curious index which requires for inclusion only that

a) the subject is to be found in a good encyclopedia or is a noted contemporary, and

b) he or she is mentioned somehow, somewhere in this book.*

Accordingly, the reader must not be too surprised to find such diverse names as Napoleon and Father Divine, or Charlemagne and Grace Kelly. They really are all mentioned!

____________

* The number of the original prophecy in connection with which a name in this index is mentioned will be found on the page designated: each commentary is, of course, preceded by the number of the quatrain to which it refers.

NOSTRADAMUS

and His Prophecies

Biography of Nostradamus

Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, was born at noon on December 14,¹ 1503, at Saint-Rémy in Provence. His ancestors were Jews who appear to have lived in the Latin world ever since the Dispersion. Some of his biographers tell us that he was of the tribe of Issachar.² Many Jews had settled in Provence, which became the best of havens³ under the rule of René the Good⁴ (1434–80).

So tolerant was René that he had as his physician and adviser a Jewish doctor and astrologer (the combination was then quite ordinary) named Jean de Saint-Rémy. René’s son Jean, Duke of Calabria and Lorraine, had taken as his physician one Pierre de Nostredame, who had had a flourishing practice in Arles until the pharmacists, annoyed at his making up his own prescriptions, had him driven out of town on charges of falsifying his drugs. Both physicians traveled around Western Europe with their respective masters, whose dominions were far-flung, and in the course of their travels they learned much.

In 1470 Jean died, poisoned at Barcelona as he was about to add the County of Barcelona (in revolt against Aragon) to his other possessions. To his father he bequeathed his physician. René, greatly upset by the premature death of his son, abandoned Anjou and its brilliant court and settled down at Tarascon in Provence, which he had hitherto visited only rarely. The two physicians became fast friends, and after René’s death, Jean persuaded his colleague to return with him to Saint-Rémy and to settle there. Accordingly, it was quite natural that Pierre’s son Jacques, a prosperous notary, should marry Jean’s daughter Renée.⁵

With the death of René, followed six years later, in 1486, by that of his nephew and heir, Charles of Maine, the second House of Anjou expired in the male line, and Provence and Maine reverted to the French crown (Anjou having reverted upon René’s death in 1480).⁶ The kings of France did not propose to have Jews flourishing in their domain. In 1488 Charles VIII ordered the Jews of Provence to become baptized. However, the king was too busily engaged in Italy to have the order enforced. But when Louis XII came to the throne, he put teeth into the order, and by an Edict of September 26, 1501, all Jews were given three months to become baptized, or to leave Provence, under pain of severe penalties.

The young couple, as well as their respective fathers, decided on the wisdom of yielding, and were baptized.⁷ The sons of Jacques de Nostredame were thus all born in the fold of the Church and duly baptized. The eldest son, Michel, became the most famous astrologer and prophet of his day, if not of modern times. Bertrand, the second son, passed into oblivion. Jean, the youngest, wrote a classic on the Provençal poets and was also Procureur of the Parliament of Provence.

At a very tender age Michel is said to have manifested signs of a very fine mind, so that his grandfather Jean asked to have Michel brought up at his home. Michel’s parents were glad of this opportunity for their son, and willingly allowed the much-traveled old man to give Michel his earliest education. In addition to the rudiments of mathematics, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, he was given his first taste of the celestial science by his astrologically-minded grandsire.

After Jean’s death, Michel returned to his father’s house in the rue de Barri. To a certain extent, his education was taken over by his other learned grandfather. When the old man had passed on all that he could teach Michel, the boy was sent off to Avignon to study the liberal arts of the time at this famous center of Renaissance learning, a century earlier the capital of Christendom. With or without justification, his biographers tell us that though apt enough in grammar, philosophy and rhetoric, he showed the greatest interest in the study of the stars. So marked was this early interest that as a result of his frequent discourses on the celestial movements, his classmates nicknamed him the little astrologer.

On his return home, his father became worried about these impractical interests of Michel. On the advice of old Pierre, the doctor, this practical notary sent his son off to study medicine at the University of Montpellier, second only to that of Paris as a training place for doctors. So modern was Montpellier that in 1376 it had obtained from Louis I of Anjou the right to demand every year the body of one executed criminal for dissection.

It was 1522 and Nostradamus was nineteen. For three years he studied intensively, reading all the medical classics and listening to the lectures of the most celebrated physicians of Europe. The results was a baccalauréat, or bachelor’s degree. The manner in which this was obtained has been recorded in detail. On the chosen day, from eight in the morning till noon, an oral examination was given, in which the candidate had to parry the questions of the professors, avoid their traps and give proof of a learning approaching their own. The successful candidates were then permitted to change their black student’s robe for the red robe of the learned.

The next step for the aspiring doctor was to get a license to practice. To obtain this, the candidate had first to deliver five lectures on subjects chosen by the Dean over a period of three months. Next came the per intentionem exams, consisting of four different questions, presented one day in advance, each of which had to be discussed before a different professor. Each lasted one whole hour. Sometimes all were discussed in one day, at other times two each on two successive days. Eight days later, the candidate was given a question on a fifth malady by the Chancellor himself, and on this he had to do his best extemporaneously. Often the subject was one never treated before. Having finished, he was given an aphorism of Hippocrates on which to have a thesis finished by the following day. This final pair of hurdles to jump was called les points rigoreux. If the candidate was successful, and Michel was, he was given his license by the Bishop of Montpellier.

The year that Nostradamus obtained his license was 1525, and in this year a new outbreak of the ever-recurrent plague was devastating southern France. Abandoning for a time his education (there remained still a doctorate to obtain), Nostradamus left the university in order to make use of his knowledge. In the town of Montpellier itself he laid the foundations for a remarkable reputation. His phenomenal success seems to have been due to two factors. In the first place, he is said to have exhibited unusual self-confidence and unquenchable courage in the face of the plague. Second, he made great use of unorthodox prescriptions from his own formulas, which proved very successful, either medically or psychologically.

From Montpellier he extended his activity to the countryside and eventually came to Narbonne, where he attended the courses of the celebrated Jewish⁸ alchemists who flourished there. In that day, the distinction between alchemy and pharmacy was very hazy indeed. From Narbonne, Nostradamus moved on to Carcassonne, where he served the Bishop, Ammenien de Fays.⁹ Some time later he was found living in Toulouse in the rue de la Triperie, and here he seems to have passed many months. In Bordeaux he found the plague in a particularly virulent form, and after offering his services for some time, he made his way eastward again. In Avignon, where he had had his first formal education, he is said to have spent many hours in the library, and it may be here that he first came across works on magic and the occult, works which were to influence him greatly.¹⁰ Throughout his career, Nostradamus’ pharmaceutical penchant led him to experiment not only with medical preparations but also with items whose sole purpose was to delight the stomach. Accordingly, we find that while in Avignon he presented a quince jelly, of sovereign beauty, goodness, taste and excellence, to Cardinal Clermont, the Legate,¹¹ and to the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John.¹²

Four years had now passed since he had left Montpellier. The plague had abated and he had gained experience. It was but natural to return to Montpellier for his doctorate. The records of the university revealed his name inscribed anew on October 23, 1529. The new series of examinations was known as les triduanes. The candidate presented a list of twelve subjects on which he was prepared to be questioned. Of these, six were chosen, three by the Dean and three by lot. The candidate had then to argue the points involved with the professors. His biographers tell us that in Nostradamus’ case, he had to defend the unorthodox remedies which he had recently used. After making a successful showing, Dr. Nostradamus was given the distinctive cap, a gold ring and the book of Hippocrates. He was now on the same level as the great physicians of Christendom.

Dr. Nostradamus was offered a job on the faculty, and accepted. A splendid future lay before him there. But after a year, his independent spirit began chafing under the restrictions imposed upon him. Obliged to accept all the teachings of prescribed texts, he could not stress his own unorthodox conclusions.¹³ Furthermore, the wanderlust was clearly in his blood.

And so one day in 1532¹⁴ he saddled his mule, collected his books and instruments and set forth again. For two years he traveled over the scenes of what his biographers lyrically refer to as his former triumphs.¹⁵ His travels took him to Bordeaux again, to La Rochelle and to Toulouse. While in Toulouse he received a letter from Jules-César Scaliger, considered second only to Erasmus as the most learned man in Europe. Scaliger, whose attainments included medicine, poetry, philosophy, botany and mathematics, expressed a desire to meet this man of whom he had heard so much, and to see if his reputation was well founded. Nostradamus replied with a letter that was at once ingenious, learned and spirited.¹⁶ Scaliger forthwith invited him to Agen.

Nostradamus was highly pleased with both the personality of Scaliger and the clime of Agen, and decided to settle down near his new friend. Mothers with marriageable daughters looked with favor upon the eminent young doctor as a prospective son-in-law. Finally, he chose one whose name has not been preserved,¹⁷ and of whom we know only that she was of high estate, very beautiful and very amiable.¹⁸ Within the usual space of time, his wife bore him a son and a daughter.

For three years Nostradamus led an idyllic life. He had a fine family, a lucrative practice and the intellectual stimulus of the near-by Scaliger and his learned visitors from all Christendom. Then disaster struck. One after another his wife and children were carried off by an outbreak of pestilence. We do not know whether or not it was the Black Death, but in any case, after saving so many he was unable to save those he loved most.

The loss of his family was a sufficiently heavy blow. But others followed in short order. Some of his patients decided they would just as soon not have a doctor who couldn’t save his own family. He had a violent quarrel with Scaliger, the cause of which is unknown; they ceased to be friends and Scaliger is said to have made abusive references to him later.¹⁹ Finally, his wife’s family started a lawsuit to recover her dowry.

But what appears to have prompted him to break all his ties in haste was a rather trivial matter. In 1534, seeing a workman cast a bronze model of the Virgin, Nostradamus remarked that he was only making devils. The workman, shocked, reported this to the authorities. Nostradamus’ apologists maintain that he referred only to the inartistic Gothic form, but the similarity of his words to the iconoclasm of the Protestants was unmistakable. (Calvin was then in the same area, completing his theological masterwork.) It was rumored that the ecclesiastical authorities would soon send for Nostradamus. In 1538 came an official order to appear before the Inquisitor at Toulouse.

Once again he set out on his wanderings, which were to last about six years, 1538–44. Little is known of the route he followed. The only information comes from references to places, and occasionally dates, in his later works. He seems to have got as far north as Lorraine, as far east as Venice and as far south as Sicily.

Throughout his travels he seems to have sought contact with all who could in any way add to his medical and pharmaceutical knowledge. There is much reason to believe his round of calls included visits to alchemists, astrologers, cabalists, magicians and the like as well. But in those times, as we have seen, the distinction was only blurry.

This six-year odyssey is the setting for several of the Nostradamian legends, for none of which is there much in the line of proof. While in Italy, we are told, he saw coming towards him a young Franciscan from Ancona named Felice Peretti. As the ex-swineherd passed, the budding prophet put a knee to the ground devoutly. Asked the reason for his strange behavior, Nostradamus replied, I must submit myself and bend a knee before His Holiness. It is almost superfluous to add that in 1585 Cardinal Peretti became Pope Sixtus V.

The source for the next legend is very distinct, so we shall see it as it first appeared.²⁰

In the same place, visiting Monsieur and Madame de Florinville, I learned from them that Michel Nostradamus had lodged there and had treated there Madame de Florinville, grandmother of the said Lord of Florinville, who is still alive,²¹ to whom happened this story which, to be entertaining, he tells in diverse places: Monsieur de Florinville, taking a walk in the courtyard of his chateau, in the company of Nostradamus, saw two little suckling pigs, one white, the other black. At the sight of them he asked Nostradamus for sport what would happen to these two animals. To which the latter replied at once: We will eat the black one and the wolf will eat the white one.

Monsieur de Florinville, wishing to make a liar of the prophet, secretly commanded his cook to kill the white one and present it at supper. He killed the white one, dressed it and put it on the spit ready for roasting at the appropriate hour. However, while he was on an errand outside the kitchen, a little wolf’s cub that was being nourished to tame it entered and ate the rumps of the little white pig ready to be roasted. When the cook returned, fearing to be scolded by his master, he took the black one, killed it, prepared it and served it for supper. Thereupon Monsieur de Florinville, believing he had won the day, knowing nothing of the accident which had occurred, said to Nostradamus: Well, sir, we are now eating the white pig, and the wolf will not touch it here. I do not believe it, said Nostradamus; it is the black one which is on the table. As soon as the cook was made to come in he confessed the accident which provided the company with another more agreeable dish.²²

We are also told of an extended stay at the Cistercian Abbey of Orval.²³ Two rather poorly faked prose prophecies, predicting the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte, were discovered in the early 19th century. The Prophecy of Philip Olivarius, printed in 1542, seems to have actually been printed for the first time in 1820.²⁴ The Prophecy of Orval, printed in 1544, seems to have appeared for the first time in 1839.²⁵ Bareste, the great Nostradamian enthusiast, took both of them to his heart and proclaimed Nostradamus their author, a claim taken up again shortly after by another great commentator of the 19th century, Torné-Chavigny.²⁶ Although it is highly improbable that Nostradamus or anyone else in the 16th century wrote the prophecies, he may have passed some time at Orval amongst his other stops.

In 1544 Nostradamus was found in Marseilles, where, it seems, he thought of settling down. Together with Louis Serres, he fought a new outburst of the plague here. In November of 1544, Provence suffered one of the worst floods of its history. The rivers becoming polluted by the corpses of men and animals, the death toll exacted by the plague reached new heights.

In 1546 the ever-worsening plague struck its mightiest blow at Aix, the capital of Provence. César Nostradamus later wrote a lurid description of conditions in Aix at the time, as reported to him by his father.²⁷

Persons stricken by the furor of this malady completely abandon all hope of recovery, wrap themselves in two white winding sheets, and give forth even while they live (unheard-of thing) their sad and lamentable obsequies. The houses are abandoned and empty, men disfigured, women in tears, children bewildered, old folk astonished, the bravest vanquished and animals pursued. The palace is shut and locked, justice silent and deserted, Themis absent and mute, the stretcher-bearers and street porters work on credit. The shops shut, arts halted, temples solitary and the priests all confused. In brief, all the streets villous, wild and full of weeds because of the lugubrious absence of man and beast for the 270 days that the evil lasted… .

In his later writings,²⁸ Nostradamus tells us that the plague began here on May 1, and that he was called in soon after. He gives many details of his work here, most interesting of which is the formula for his rose pills.²⁹ All who made use of them, he tells us, were saved, while those who didn’t died. Anyhow, he himself had enough confidence in their effect to remain shut up with hundreds of patients over a period of many months. Whether or not his rose pills were supremely efficacious, he at least refrained from bleeding and physicking his patients to death, as many of his colleagues did.³⁰

The next place to require his services was the little town of Salon. The dryness of the climate and its ideal location, between Marseilles, Aix, Arles and Avignon, made Salon more pleasing to him than any town he had seen since Agen. Once again he settled down, this time to stay. Salon remained his home for the rest of his life.

Soon after he settled in Salon, he was called away again, this time to Lyons. Nostradamus himself tells us only that he brought the pestilence raging there under control through mass prescriptions which were ably filled for him by one René Hepiliervard. But one of his most enthusiastic biographers, Bareste, added many more details of dubious authenticity, which have since become part of the stock Nostradamian biography.³¹

Returning to Salon loaded with honors and gifts, as we are told, Nostradamus married for a second time. The lady, whose name was Anne Ponsarde³² Gemelle, was that always-useful person, a rich widow. Their marriage contract, still in the archives of Salon, was signed on November 11, 1547, before Master Étienne Hozier, Salon notary. Their house, in an impasse off the Place de la Poissonnerie, in the Farreiroux quarter (the street is now called after the prophet), can likewise still be seen, in its restored condition.

At best Salon, with its dry and healthy climate, did not offer a particularly turbulent practice. In his professional capacity, it appears that his chief job soon consisted mainly of making special cosmetic preparations for the wealthy gentry, by whom he was soon accepted. Whether his imminent mystical reputation was the cause of the hostility the lower classes had for him, or whether that hostility led him to his secret studies, is still a matter of conjecture and conflict of opinion. Although we cannot be certain which of the two factors was the cause of the other, we know that by 1550 he was launched into his prophetic career, and that from the very beginning of his stay in Salon he was the subject of abuse as a minion of Satan, as a Jew (though converted, a fact that did not impress the mob) and as a suspected Huguenot sympathizer. For in these days of religious conflict, religion became the cloak for economic as well as political passions. When many of the Provençal gentry turned Huguenot, the peasantry periodically rose up and combined religious fervor with profit by looting the houses of the rich. These Cabans, as they were called, were guided more often by the wealth of their prospective victim than by evidence of their heresy.

Retiring more and more from service amongst these barbarians,³³ Nostradamus converted the uppermost floor of his house into a study and observatory, and after consuming all the books on astrology and magic³⁴ on which he could lay his hands, he was ready to begin a career that was to make his one of the best known names in France.

In 1550³⁵ he published his first almanac.³⁶ The success which it enjoyed led him to publish one for almost every year until his death. Although many contained predictions that were never borne out, the prophet seems to have had many well-wishers ready to reply that if an almanac contained false predictions, it was only a forgery.³⁷ The profit³⁸ and the renown that he obtained from the fast-selling almanacs soon led him to conceive the most pretentious plan for a book of prophecies ever held by any man.

However, at no time in his career did prophecy absorb all his attention. Works on cosmetics, prescriptions, recipes for preserves and translations of classical literary pieces flowed from his pen at different times. In 1552 appeared the Traicté des fardemens, the first of his professional works.³⁹

Another subject for concern during this period appeared when Nostradamus became a patron of Adam de Craponne, a young man with a dream. His dream was to make the arid desert of Crau around Salon into a fertile plain through a canal connecting the Rhône and the Durance. The prophet gave advice, encouragement and large sums of money on several occasions. Work was begun on August 17, 1554, and completed on April 20, 1559, when Craponne’s dream was fully realized. Today eighteen communities owe their prosperity to him and his canal.

It may also have been in 1554 that another young man appeared on the horizon. Jean-Aymes⁴⁰ de Chavigny of Beaune, at the age of thirty in 1554, had a doctor’s degree in both theology and law. In 1548 he had been mayor of Beaune. With this brilliant future ahead of him, he had suddenly decided that judicial astrology and prophecy were the most interesting thing in the world for him. On the advice of his friend, Jean Dorat, court poet and professor of Greek at the College of France and a great admirer of Nostradamus, he had made his way to Salon. From his later works on Nostradamus, biographers have been led to believe that he lived with the prophet as friend, secretary and disciple until Nostradamus’ death in 1566, but there are many reasons to doubt that their relationship was that close or of such long and uninterrupted duration.⁴¹

On various grounds, Nostradamus was convinced that a crucial period in history was on the horizon, a view which in fact most historians came to hold. Omens to right and left served to make him more sure of his convictions. One such omen is mentioned by César:⁴²

The year 1554 … I don’t know what sad and unhappy events begin and follow creatures hideously deformed and prodigious. Scarcely had January expired when one saw born at Senas a monstrous child, having two heads, which the eye could not look at without some sort of horror: he had been predicted some time previously by those who had knowledge of the course of future events… . He was carried to my father and seen by several persons.

This, and the birth of a two-headed horse near Salon forty-five days later, caused Nostradamus to declare profoundly that a deep cleavage in France was ahead.

While the almanacs contained prophecies for only one year in advance, the Centuries were to contain prophecies for more than two thousand years, or, specifically, until 3797. The literary form was to be a Milliade of ten Centuries, each Century containing one hundred quatrains, or four-line verses. There was no relationship whatever between the Century as a collection of one hundred quatrains and a calendar century. However, this ideal pattern was not to be realized. For reasons unknown, the 7th Century was never completed, and various quatrains which seem indeed the work of Nostradamus duplicate numbers of other predictions in some cases, or bear numbers for an additional 11th and 12th Centuries in other cases.⁴³

In his brief biography of the prophet in 1594, Chavigny gave the following interesting background for the Centuries:

Foreseeing the signal mutations and changes which were to occur universally throughout Europe, and also the bloody civil wars, and the pernicious troubles fatally approaching the Gallic Realm, full of enthusiasm, and as if maddened by a furor entirely new, he set himself to write his Centuries, and other presages, which he kept a long time without wishing to publish them, feeling that the novelty of the matter could not fail to cause infinite detractions, calumnies and backbitings more than venomous, as indeed happened. Finally, overcome by the desire that he had to be of service to the public, he brought them to light, with the result that their fame and renown ran quite incontinently through the mouths of Frenchmen and of foreigners with the greatest of admiration.

It is rather difficult to see how these predictions, admittedly obscured so as to be as incomprehensible as possible, could be of service to the public. Whatever it was that impelled Nostradamus to cast aside his fears and publish the Centuries, this was certainly not the reason.

Although the first unit of the Centuries appears to have been seven Centuries, the first edition, printed in Lyons in 1555, contained only the Preface to the infant César,⁴⁴ Centuries I–III complete, and Century IV with but fifty-three quatrains. The rest of Century IV, as well as Centuries V-VII, may have been printed later that year. In any case, all seven were in print by 1557.⁴⁵

The reaction to the Centuries was, as could be expected, mixed. The leisure classes who had enjoyed the almanacs gave these new predictions an even more enthusiastic reception.⁴⁶ To them the obscurity was intriguing and could definitely be clarified through their superior learning. The less-learned masses of the people could think only that the verses contained gibberish straight from hell, and that Nostradamus was, as they always suspected, a tool of the devil, to be feared and hated.

Although the quatrains were all the rage at court, there were also many educated people who joined the masses in villifying Nostradamus. Doctors and astrologers accused him of disgracing their respective professions; philosophers objected to his premises; poets reasonably enough objected to the miserable quality of his verses. Amongst the critics of the intelligentsia, a clever Latin distich at Nostradamus’ expense sped across France:

Nostra damns cum falsa⁴⁷ damus, nam fallere nostrum est;

Et cum falsa damus, nil nisi nostra damus.⁴⁸

This translates punlessly into English as We give that which is our own when we give false things: for it is in our nature to deceive; And when we give false things, we give but our own things. Actually, many years had first to go by before he could be vilified for the most just reason—that very few of the things he intended to predict occurred as he foresaw.

Of all the great personages of France who formed Nostradamus’ public, the greatest was undoubtedly the superstitious and astrology-conscious Queen, Catherine de’ Medici. At her request, Henry II sent a royal command to Claude de Savoy, Comte de Tende, Governor and Grand Seneschal of Provence, to send that Nostradamus fellow to Paris.

On July 14, 1556, Nostradamus set out upon the hazardous journey. Because he was traveling under royal orders, he was able to make use of the royal post from Pont-Saint-Esprit on, and thus the journey took only one month. Reaching Paris on August 15, he spotted the Inn of Saint-Michel near Notre Dame and, considering this a good augury, took lodgings here. Word of his arrival reached the Queen promptly, and next day there came to the inn no less a person that Anne de Montmorency, Grand Constable of France.

The Constable conducted him to the Court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris. As he waited to be admitted to Catherine’s presence, he was surrounded on all sides by the curious courtiers, bombarding him with questions, serious or facetious, or just anxious to take a look at the Oracle of France.

For several hours he was closeted with the Queen. The range of probable subjects included astrology, Italy, cosmetics and the future of France. Henry II had less time for him. Some commentators have no doubt that Henry asked him about Quatrain 35 of Century I, since, if applied to himself, it tallied closely with the ominous warning by the famous Italian astrologer, Luc Gauric.⁴⁹ On this score, however, a great deal of skepticism is in order.

On his return to Paris, he was lodged at the palace of the Cardinal Bourbon-Vendôme, Archbishop of Sens. The king sent him a velvet purse with one hundred crowns, and Catherine added thirty. As the journey had cost him one hundred crowns, he had had to borrow money from a trusting stranger, Jean Morel, on his arrival.⁵⁰ He was furious about this niggardly reward for all his pains.

While thus comfortably lodged, he suffered an attack of gout and was confined for ten days. This is the setting for another Nostradamian legend. Many people had come by day, seeking his favor with presents, anxious to get a peek into the future. Grateful for the nocturnal peace in which he could occupy himself with his secret studies, he was highly incensed when a persistent knocking sounded on the door. It was a page of the illustrious family of Beauveau, who had lost a fine dog entrusted to him. Before he could announce the cause of his impudence, Nostradamus called out, What’s the matter, king’s page? You are making a lot of noise over a lost dog. Go and look on the road to Orléans. You will find it there, led on a leash. When the page followed directions, he found a servant leading the dog back. When he spread the story around court, we are told, the prophet’s fame increased mightily.

The real purpose of his invitation to Paris was made known to him. He was to go to the royal chateau at Blois to cast the horoscopes of the Valois children. The Queen was impatient. As soon as he could walk again, he was off to Blois. Nostradamian commentators have no doubt that he saw the tragic fates that awaited most of them:

… for, in the cloudy language of the Centuries, were not their fates already written? That boy of thirteen who shall one day be Francis II, who shall be married while still a child to that other unhappy child Mary Stuart, and who shall die miserably after one year of reign; that girl of eleven, destined also to die young, the child-wife of gloomy old Philip of Spain; that girl of nine who will die in her twenties as Duchess of Lorraine; that melancholy little boy of six in whose staring eyes shall one day be reflected the fires of St. Bartholomew; that boy of five who shall be twice a king, but in both kingdoms unhappy, and whose body will be pierced by the assassin’s dagger; and that other boy of two, François, Duc d’Alençon, the perpetual Malcontent, titular sovereign of the Netherlands, suitor of Queen Elizabeth, laughing stock of Europe–what a nursery to prophesy for! The only child with any soundness and sweetness in the whole brood was the tempestuous Marguerite, then a girl of four, who was to be married to the enemy, Henry of Navarre, to be repudiated by him for her adulteries, to outlive them all and to go down to history as the raffish, ragtaggle but not unlovable Reine Margot.⁵¹

Of course, Nostradamus could not inform Catherine of these tragic destinies. Accordingly, we are told, he simply told her that all her sons would be kings. This was not quite correct. François never quite made it. Maybe he said that in her sons she beheld four kings-to-be. Since Henry ruled Poland as well as France, this would do it. But whatever it was that he actually told Catherine, she never complained that he had been in the least inaccurate, and retained her confidence in him throughout.

Soon after his return to Paris, he left the city again hurriedly. A very honest woman who had the air of a lady of quality warned him that these gentlemen from the Justice of Paris intended to pay him a visit to inquire into the nature of the science that he practiced with so much success. Although in the end Catherine’s protection would have pulled him out of any scrape, he took this as a good sign to leave the big city.⁵²

The great man now returned to Salon in triumph. His house was constantly besieged by visitors. Craponne was nearing final success with his canal. He wrote more brief works of various sorts and probably worked on the new edition of the Centuries, with VIII–X, which would complete the Milliade. In 1557 his second son, André, was born.

It was probably at this time that the Bishop of Orange sent the famous prophet a plea for help. Some scoundrel had stolen a silver chalice. Could the prophet determine the culprit? The letter sent in reply by Nostradamus⁵³ is still in the archives of Arles. Nostradamus began his reply with an ominous-looking horoscope, unexplained. He wrote that if the chalice was not returned promptly, Orange would suffer the worst pestilence in its history, and the thief would die the most horrible death imaginable. He advised the Bishop to post the letter in a public place. Unfortunately, there is no further report of what happened thereafter.

This period is also the setting for another Nostradamian anecdote. One evening, as he was sitting in front of his house, the daughter of a neighbor passed him on her way to the woods to gather some firewood. She greeted him politely.

Bonjour, Monsieur de Nostredame.

Bonjour, fillette.

An hour later she returned and greeted him again.

Bonjour, Monsieur de Nostredame.

Bonjour, petite femme. True or not, a charming story.

The new edition of the Centuries was to be dedicated to the prophet’s recent benefactor, the King of France. This Dedication, or Epistle, actually amounted to a prose outline of his view of things to come. Although it is dated June 27, 1558, and contains mention of March 14, 1557, as a starting point for the prophetic outline, this Epistle and the last three Centuries were not printed till 1568, two years after his death. However, it is likely that manuscript copies were circulated during his lifetime, for, as we shall see, at least one of the quatrains contained in this edition was known at court around 1560.⁵⁴ Why he refrained from publishing it during his lifetime is a matter for conjecture.

In the summer of 1559 the House of France celebrated two marriages. The King’s daughter Elizabeth was married by proxy to Philip II of Spain on June 22. On June 28 the marriage contract of the King’s sister Marguerite and the Duke of Savoy was signed. On June 28 there began three days of festivities, highlighted by tournaments in the rue Saint-Antoine. The King engaged in these and distinguished himself on the first two days. Towards sunset of the third day, July 1, Henry rode against Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, Captain of the Scottish Guard. Failing to unseat him, he insisted on another bout. Henry was perhaps conscious of riding headlong towards his fate. The lances met and splintered, Montgomery dropped his shaft a second too late, the jagged point pierced the King’s visor and entered behind his eye. He reeled, clutched the pommel of his saddle desperately and fell into the arms of his grooms. After ten days of agony, he died on July 10.

Cursed be the divine who predicted it, so evilly and so well, exclaimed Montmorency dramatically. Although he probably had Gauric in mind, there were many at court who thought of Quatrain 135 in the Centuries of Nostradamus. We are told by César that in the suburbs of Paris the populace burned Nostradamus in effigy and called on the Church to do the same to the prophet himself.

Henry was succeeded by his eldest son as Francis II. On November 17, 1560, the sickly young king had a shivering fit and swooned. On November 20, 1560, the Venetian ambassador, Michele Suriano, wrote the Doge from Orléans, Each courtier recalls now the 39th quatrain of Century X of Nostradamus and comments on it under his breath.⁵⁵ On December 3, Niccolo Tornabuoni, the Tuscan ambassador, wrote to Duke Cosimo of Florence, The health of the King is very uncertain, and Nostradamus, in his predictions for this month, says that the royal house will lose two young members⁵⁶ from unforeseen malady.⁵⁷ Francis died December 5.

On January 12, 1561, Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, wrote to Philip II, It has been remarked that in one month the first and last members of the royal house have died. These catastrophes have struck the court with stupor, together with the warning of Nostradamus, whom it would be better to chastize than to allow to sell thus his prophecies, which lead to vain and superstitious beliefs.⁵⁸ In May, 1561, Suriano wrote another report to the Doge. There is another prediction very widely spread in France, emanating from this famous divine astrologer named Nostradamus, and which threatens the three brothers, saying that the queen mother will see them all kings.⁵⁹

Meanwhile, in Salon, Nostradamus could not know of his renown in the chancelleries of Europe. In October, 1559, the Duke of Savoy stopped at Salon on his way home to Nice. When he learned that a plague was raging in his domains, he decided to stay there awhile. In December he was joined here by Marguerite. The whole town turned out to honor her, and Nostradamus was called upon to compose a suitable inscription for the arches. He resolved on–

SANGUINE TROIANNO, TROIANA STIRPE CREATA ET REGINA CYPRI.⁶⁰

This was held to be in very fine taste. As for Marguerite, a gentleman who was present at all these events assured me that this Princess entertained him a long time and did him much honor.⁶¹

Nostradamus continued to pass his time turning out yearly and periodical prophecies and defending himself from the attacks of the Cabans, which reached their height in 1560. In December of 1561 the prophet was called to Nice by his Savoy patrons to cast the horoscope of the unborn Charles-Emmanuel. Nostradamus predicted that he would be the greatest captain of his age; which turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration.⁶²

Early in 1564 Catherine conceived the idea of a Royal Progress throughout France, with the vain goal of pacifying the strife-torn land. The Progress was to terminate at the Spanish border in a conference with her daughter and Spanish leaders. If the Huguenots had not become reasonable by then, she could arrange for joint action with the Spanish. With a reduced court of eight hundred, including the entire royal family, she set out for a tour that was to last for two years.

The Progress of course had to include Provence, and Catherine would hardly pass through Provence without paying a visit to Nostradamus at Salon. César Nostradamus collected much information on this high-water mark of his father’s career, so we shall see his own words:

Very soon afterwards there came to Provence the young King, who was making a tour of his kingdom, and arrived at this town of Salon on Tuesday, October 17th, at 3 P.M. The plague had already been declared in this little place, where it had been very suddenly caught by four or five persons: such that the town being empty and deserted by people who did not care to struggle against such a pitiless enemy, the structures looked very sad, and the houses were in a pitiful state to receive a royal train. This moved His Majesty to command through criers sent from there that all the absent were to return, along with their belongings, under pain of prompt and heavy penalties: upon which each returned to his hearth as much to obey the royal command as to see His Majesty and more princes than Salon had seen in its entire history. For the entry of this monarch, according to the custom of the times, several simple arches had been prepared, covered with branches of box, from the gate of Avignon by which he made his entry to the gates of the chateau, a magnificent and pontifical mansion. The streets were covered with sand and strewn with rosemary branches, which gave a very agreeable and scentful odor. He was seated on an African horse, with gray housing and a harness of black velvet with large trimmings and fringes of gold. His person was cloaked in a mantle of Tyrian crimson, vulgarly called purple, enriched with silver ribbons; his hat and plumage accorded with his clothing. Antoine de Cordova, an honorable and generous gentleman, who shortly afterwards was made a Knight of Saint-Michel, and Jacques Paul, one of the richest men of his time, who likewise was ennobled several years later, being Consuls, they received him at the gate by which he made his entry, under a curtain of violet and white damask. These two Magistrates, honorably accompanied by more nobles and bourgeois of the town, at once begged Michel de Nostredame, whose name was quite sufficient to account for their desire to have him along, to speak to Her Majesty at the reception, guessing quite correctly that she would especially desire to see him: but he excused himself as graciously as he could to Antoine de Cordova, his very intimate friend, and his companions, informing them that he wanted to move about independently and greet Her Majesty away from the vulgar mob, and from this crowd of men, being quite well warned that he would be asked for and sought when she arrived.

Thus, very decently covered, he awaited the moment to render this homage to his King; the Consuls pointed him out to His Majesty, to whom he made a very humble and suitable reverence with a free and philosophical liberty, pronouncing this verse of the poet: Vir magnus bello, nulli pietate secundus.⁶³ Thereafter, as if completely beside himself with an extraordinary ease that he felt at this instant of seeing himself so humanely acclaimed by such a great Monarch, of whom he was born a subject, and as if indignant against his own land, he proclaimed these words: O ingrata patria, veluti Abdera Democrito;⁶⁴ as if he had wished to say: O ungrateful land, to whom I have given such a name, see how much my King still deigns to make of me! Which he doubtlessly said openly enough in these few words, against the rude and uncivilized treatment that certain seditious rogues, gallows-birds, bloody butchers and villainous Cabans had given to him, who gave such glory to his native land. Then my father, for it is of him I speak, accompanied him, always at his side, with his velvet hat in one hand, and a very large and beautiful Malacca cane, with a silver handle, in the other, to support him on the road (because he was often tormented by that troublesome pain in the feet vulgarly called gout) up to the gates of the chateau, and again in his own chamber, where he entertained this young King for a very long time, as well as the Queen-Regent, his mother, who had a very benevolent curiosity to see all his little family, even to a little baby girl in arms. I remember this very well, for I was of the party.

His Majesty left the next morning⁶⁵ for Aix … and took again the road to Arles, where he stayed fifteen days… . While there, he desired to see more of my father, so he expressly sent to ask for him, and after several discourses, knowing very well that the late King, Henry II, his father, of very heroic memory, had made much of him, and had honored him greatly during his trip to France, he dispatched⁶⁶ to him a present of 200 gold crowns, to which the Queen added half as much, and gave him his patents as Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary, with all the customary wages, prerogatives and honors. Sweet and agreeable things if they had had more durable import for him and his family, which could hardly have failed to raise itself by them to the best fortune if he did not abandon them. These royal favors which lasted only a moment seemed to be the signs and certain advance-couriers that a King greater than the one of France would very soon send for him to ask him to reply to His tribunal, as we shall see shortly.⁶⁷

Nostradamus and young Henry of Navarre (October 18, 1564). From a painting by L. Denis Valverane which hangs in the Museum of Old Salon.

Chantonnay, that Spanish ambassador whose contempt for Nostradamus we have already noted, had been succeeded by a no less hostile Don Francisco de Alava. Some of his despatches to Philip II give us more interesting details on the royal visit. One provides a very interesting prophecy not borne out by history:⁶⁸ Tomorrow there leaves secretly a gentleman sent to the Queen of England. I know that the Ambassador is jealous. The first day that the King and Queen saw Nostradamus he declared to them that the King would marry the aforesaid Queen.⁶⁹

Another despatch, sent from Toulouse months later, verifies the high esteem in which Catherine held Nostradamus.⁷⁰

In order that Your Majesty may see how light-minded people are here, I will say that the Queen, when she passed through the place where Nostradamus lives, summoned him