Nostradamus (d. 1566)

Biography

Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.

Timeline

The story of Nostradamus, told in moments.

1503 Birth

Born Michel de Nostredame in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. His family were Jews who'd converted to Catholicism. He studied medicine at the University of Montpellier but was expelled when they discovered he'd worked as an apothecary, which was considered a manual trade.

Did being expelled from Montpellier radicalize you or redirect you? How did your family's conversion shape your view of authority? Was pharmacy really beneath a physician?

1534 Life

His first wife and two children die of plague. He'd been treating plague victims across southern France. The Inquisition summons him for questioning after a casual remark about a religious statue is reported. He leaves town and wanders for six years.

How did losing your wife and children to plague change your relationship with medicine? What did the Inquisition actually want from you? Where did you go during those six years of wandering?

1550 Event

Publishes his first almanac of predictions. It sells well. He writes one every year after that. Then he begins composing Les Propheties, 942 quatrains of cryptic verse written in a mix of French, Latin, Greek, and Italian.

Why did you write your prophecies in four different languages? Were the quatrains meant to be understood or merely felt? Did you believe your own predictions?

1555 Event

The first edition of Les Propheties reaches Catherine de Medici, Queen of France. She summons him to Paris. He casts horoscopes for her children. He becomes a court favorite. The prophecies are vague enough to fit almost any event.

What did Catherine de Medici actually ask you in private? Were you her advisor or her entertainer? How deliberately vague were the prophecies?

1566 Death

Dies in Salon-de-Provence at 62. He told his secretary the night before: 'You will not find me alive at sunrise.' Gout had made it hard for him to move. His followers consider this his final, most accurate prediction.

Was telling your secretary you'd die by sunrise a prediction or a goodbye? What would surprise you most about how people use your prophecies today? Did you fear death or welcome it?

In Their Own Words (6)

Tomorrow, I shall no longer be here.

Last words, as quoted in Famous Last Words: The Ultimate Collection of Finales and Farewells‎ (2004) by Laura Ward and Robert Allen; reported to have been said to his secretary Jean de Chavigny, 2004

I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the "common advent", even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalise delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind.

Letter from Salon to his son Cesar (March 1555) as translated by Peter Lemesurier, 1555

When twenty years of the Moon's reign have passedanother will take up his reign for seven thousand years.When the exhausted Sun takes up his cyclethen my prophecy and threats will be accomplished.

Sitting alone at night in secret study;it is placed on the brass tripod.A slight flame comes out of the emptiness andmakes successful that which should not be believed in vain.

Perfect knowledge of such things cannot be acquired without divine inspiration, given that all prophetic inspiration derives its initial origin from God Almighty, then from chance and nature. Since all these portents are produced impartially, prophecy comes to pass partly as predicted. For understanding created by the intellect cannot be acquired by means of the occult, only by the aid of the zodiac, bringing forth that small flame by whose light part of the future may be discerned. We need god to prosper those without him will not.