Nostradamus

=== Childhood ===
[[File:Nostradamus birthplace.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Nostradamus's claimed birthplace, [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence]], photographed in 1997]]
[[File:Nostradamus-plaque.gif|thumb|Municipal plaque on the claimed birthplace of Nostradamus in St-Rémy, France, describing him as an 'astrologer' and giving his birth-date as 14 December 1503 ([[Julian calendar]])]]

Nostradamus was born on either 14 or 21 December 1503 in [[Saint-Rémy-de-Provence]], [[Provence]], France,{{sfn|Leroy|1993|p=24}} where his claimed birthplace still exists, and baptized Michel.{{sfn|Leroy|1993|p=24}} He was one of at least nine children of notary Jaume (or Jacques) de Nostredame and Reynière, granddaughter of Pierre de Saint-Rémy who worked as a physician in Saint-Rémy.{{sfn|Leroy|1993|p=24}} Jaume's family had originally been [[Jews|Jewish]], but his father, Cresquas, a grain and money dealer based in [[Avignon]], had converted to Catholicism around 1459–60, taking the Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" (Our Lady), the saint on whose day his conversion was solemnised.{{sfn|Leroy|1993|p=24}} The earliest ancestor who can be identified on the paternal side is Astruge of [[Carcassonne]], who died about 1420. Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jean (c. 1507–1577), Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, [[Jean de Nostredame|Jean II]] (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523).{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=143–146}}{{sfn|Leroy|1993|pp=32–51}}{{sfn|Lemesurier|1999|pp=24–25}}
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. Rémy<ref name="ref4">De Chavigny, J. A.: ''La première face du Janus françois'' (Lyon, 1594)</ref>—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.{{sfn|Brind'Amour|1993|p=545}}