Nostradamus's Biography(Photos)

Nostradamus (born Michel de Nostredame), was a French
apothecary and reputed seer. He is best known for his book

admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted
at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to

Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555
and which has rarely been out of print since his death.

Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her
children. At the time, he feared that he would be

Because of this book, Nostradamus has attracted an almost
cult following. He is credited by his many enthusiasts, as

beheaded,[13] but by the time of his death in 1566,
Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary

well as the popular press, for predicting numerous major
world events.

to her son, the young King Charles IX of France.

In The Prophecies he compiled his collection of major,

Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he was afraid
of being persecuted for heresy by the Inquisition, but

long-term predictions. The first installment was published
in 1555. The second, with 289 further prophetic verses, was

neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he
would have been in danger only if he had practiced magic to

printed in 1557. The third edition, with three hundred new
quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558, but now only

support them. In fact, his relationship with the Church was
always excellent. His brief imprisonment at Marignane in

survives as part of the omnibus edition that was published
after his death in 1568. This version contains one unrhymed

late 1561 came about purely because he had published his
1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop,

and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped into nine sets of 100 and
one of 42, called "Centuries".

contrary to a recent royal decree.

Nostredame began to move away from medicine and toward the

Given printing practices at the time (which included
type-setting from dictation), no two editions turned out to

occult. Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for
1550, for the first time Latinizing his name from Nostredame

be identical, and it is relatively rare to find even two
copies that are exactly the same. Certainly there is no

to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the almanac's
success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken

warrant for assuming – as would-be "code-breakers" are
prone to do – that either the spellings or the punctuation

together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338
prophecies, as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all

of any edition are Nostradamus' originals.

of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes
supposed, in March. It was mainly in response to the

The Almanacs: by far the most popular of his works, these
were published annually from 1550 until his death. He often

almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from
far away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic"

published two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs
(detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (more

generalized predictions).

rather than calculating them himself as a professional
astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this

Nostradamus was not only a diviner, but a professional
healer, too. It is known that he wrote at least two books on

himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he
always made numerous errors, and never adjusted the figures

medical science. One was an extremely free translation (i.e.
a "paraphrase") of The Protreptic of Galen (Paraphrase de C.

GALIEN, sus l'Exhortation de Menodote aux estudes des bonnes
Artz, mesmement Medicine) , and in his so-called Traite des

Gruber's comprehensive critique of Nostradamus’ horoscope
for Crown Prince Rudolph Maximilian.)

fardemens (basically a medical cookbook containing, once
again, materials borrowed mainly from others) he included a

He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand

description of the methods he used to treat the plague –
none of which, not even the bloodletting, apparently worked.

mainly French quatrains, which constitute the largely
undated prophecies for which he is most famous today.

The same book also describes the preparation of cosmetics.

Feeling vulnerable to religious fanatics, however, he
devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using

A manuscript normally known as the Orus Apollo also exists
in the Lyon municipal library, where upwards of 2,000

"Virgilianized" syntax, word games and a mixture of other
languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, and Provencal. For

original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under
the aegis of Michel Chomarat. It is a purported translation

technical reasons connected with their 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

the true meanings of the ancient Egyptian script, which was
not correctly deciphered until the advent of Champollion in

fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not
survived into any extant edition.

the 19th century.

The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Propheties

Since his death only the Prophecies have continued to be
popular, but in this case they have been quite

(The Prophecies), received a mixed reaction when they were
published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of

extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have
appeared in that time, together with over 2000 commentaries.

evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite thought his
quatrains were spiritually-inspired prophecies – as, in

Their popularity seems to be partly due to the fact that
their vagueness and lack of dating make it easy to quote

the light of their post-Biblical sources (see under
Nostradamus' sources below), Nostradamus himself was indeed

them selectively after every major dramatic event and
retrospectively claim them as "hits" (see Nostradamus in

popular culture).