Nostradamus Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Interpretations == === Content of the quatrains === Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles—all 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.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.secret-vault.com/nostradamus/locations.html |title = Locations identified by Nostradamus Prophecies |website = The Secret Vault – Locations identified by Nostradamus Prophecies |access-date = 11 September 2019 |archive-date = 21 September 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190921013540/https://www.secret-vault.com/nostradamus/locations.html |url-status = live }}</ref> 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 wars in Europe#Growth (1453–1683)|Ottoman invasions]] and the earlier [[Saracen]] equivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the ''Mirabilis Liber''.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=xii–xviii}} All of this is presented in the context of the supposedly imminent end of the world—even though this is not in fact mentioned<ref>Nostradamus, M., ''Les Propheties'', 1568 omnibus edition</ref>—a conviction that sparked numerous collections of [[eschatology|end-time prophecies]] at the time, including an unpublished collection by [[Christopher Columbus]].{{sfn|Watts|1985|pp=73–102}}<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.sacred-texts.com/nos/ |title = Nostradamus |website = Internet Sacred Text Archive |year = 2010 |access-date = 7 April 2017 |archive-date = 1 March 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200301052155/http://www.sacred-texts.com/nos/ |url-status = live }}</ref> Views on Nostradamus have varied widely throughout history.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} Academic views, such as those of Jacques Halbronn, regard Nostradamus's ''Prophecies'' as antedated forgeries written by later authors for political reasons.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} === Popular claims === {{multiple image | perrow = 2 | total_width = 240 | image1 = The Great Fire of London, with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's.JPG | width1 = 1200 | height1 = 1600 | image2 = Napoleon in 1806.PNG | width2 = 1200 | height2 = 1600 | image3 = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13774, Adolf Hitler.jpg | width3 = 1200 | height3 = 1600 | image4 = Hiroshima 10km.jpg | width4 = 1200 | height4 = 1600 | image5 = September 11 2001 just collapsed.jpg | width5 = 1200 | height5 = 1600 | footer = Nostradamus's supporters have retrospectively claimed that he predicted major world events, including the [[Great Fire of London]], the French Revolution, the rises of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and [[Adolf Hitler]], the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], and [[September 11 attacks]].{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}}{{sfn|Gruber|2003}} | align = | direction = | alt1 = | caption1 = | caption2 = }} Many of Nostradamus's supporters believe his prophecies are genuine.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} Owing to the subjective nature of these interpretations, no two of them completely agree on what Nostradamus predicted, whether for the past or for the future.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} Many supporters do agree, for example, that he predicted the [[Great Fire of London]], the French Revolution, the rise of [[Napoleon]] and of [[Adolf Hitler]],{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|p=36}}{{efn|In several quatrains he mentions the name ''Hister'', although this is the classical name for the Lower Danube, as he himself explains in his ''Presage'' for 1554. Similarly, the expression ''Pau, Nay, Loron''—often interpreted as an anagram of "Napaulon Roy"—refers to three towns in southwestern France near his one-time home.}} both [[world war]]s, and [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|the nuclear destruction]] of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]].{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}}{{sfn|Gruber|2003}} Popular authors frequently claim that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each of their books' publication, such as the [[Apollo 11|Apollo Moon landing]] in 1969, the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]] in 1986, the [[Diana, Princess of Wales#Death|death of Diana, Princess of Wales]] in 1997, and the [[September 11 attacks]] on the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in 2001.{{sfn|Gruber|2003}}<ref name="chal">{{cite web |url = http://www.maar.us/first_century_nostradamus.html |title = CI, Q81 |website = Maar.us |access-date = 20 March 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080924052134/http://www.maar.us/first_century_nostradamus.html |archive-date = 24 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} 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 weapon]]s), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date.<ref>See, for example, Cheetham, Erika, ''The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus'', Futura, 1990, p. 373</ref> A two-part translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's ''Nostradamus: historien et prophète'' was published in 1980, and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987, including ''Nostradamus and the Millennium: Predictions of the Future'', ''Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies'' (1999) and ''Nostradamus: A Life and Myth'' (2003). 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 Nîmes and people taking refuge in its ''collosse'', or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the ''Arènes'') 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.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|p=145}} 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 in inventing intriguing aspects of his purported biography: that 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 [[Rene I of Naples|Good King René]] 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 [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric]] view of the universe; he had travelled to the Habsburg Netherlands, 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 future Pope, [[Sixtus V]], who was then only a seminary monk. He is credited with having successfully cured the [[Bubonic plague|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 ''Prophéties'', 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;{{efn|Actually the 13th–14th century ''[[Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus]]'' in a misascribed version sometimes referred to as the ''[[Vaticinia Nostradami]]''}} 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.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|pp=26–45}} This was first recorded by [[Samuel Pepys]] as early as 1667, long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated [[Diary of Samuel Pepys|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.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1667/02/03/ |title = Sunday 3 February 1666/67 |website = The Diary of Samuel Pepys |date = 3 February 2010 |access-date = 11 September 2019 |archive-date = 28 February 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200228103358/https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1667/02/03/ |url-status = live }}</ref> In 2000, [[Li Hongzhi]] claimed that the 1999 prophecy at X.72 was a prediction of the [[Persecution of Falun Gong|Chinese Falun Gong persecution]] which began in July 1999, leading to an increased interest in Nostradamus among [[Falun Gong]] members.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manderson |first1=Lenore |last2=Smith |first2=Wendy |last3=Tomlinson |first3=Matt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH_hg_zZQtEC&pg=PA44 |title=Flows of Faith: Religious Reach and Community in Asia and the Pacific |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=44 |year=2012 |isbn=978-9400729322 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228154842/https://books.google.com/books?id=YH_hg_zZQtEC&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> ===Scholarly rebuttal=== From the 1980s onward, an academic reaction set in, especially in France. The publication in 1983 of Nostradamus' private correspondence{{sfn|Dupèbe|1983}} 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{{sfn|Leroy|1993}}{{sfn|Brind'Amour|1993}} revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus did not fit the documented facts. The academics{{sfn|Leroy|1993}}{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|pp=26–45}}{{sfn|Brind'Amour|1993}}{{sfn|Randi|1990}} 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 Henry II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 years after the event.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=28–30}}{{sfn|Brind'Amour|1993|p=267}} 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]]). 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.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|p=23}} 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;<ref>See, for example, Cheetham, Erika, ''The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus'', Futura, 1990, pp. 208–209.</ref> Egypt was also an important [[Egypt Eyalet|Ottoman territory]] at this time.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HxKs-NHRgUoC&q=nostradamus+1727+ottoman+empire&pg=PA146 |title = Nostradamus and Prophecies of the Next Millennium |isbn = 978-8171820146 |year = 2001 |last = Sharma |first = A. K. |publisher = Diamond Pocket Books (P) |access-date = 19 October 2020 |archive-date = 28 February 2024 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240228154848/https://books.google.com/books?id=HxKs-NHRgUoC&q=nostradamus+1727+ottoman+empire&pg=PA146#v=snippet&q=nostradamus%201727%20ottoman%20empire&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref> 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 twisting the words to fit whichever of the many contradictory happenings they claim as "hits".{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|pp=21–22}} Moreover, no quatrain suggests, as is often claimed by books and films on the alleged [[2012 phenomenon|Mayan Prophecy]], that the world would end in December 2012.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|p=41}} In his preface to the ''Prophecies'', Nostradamus himself stated that his prophecies extend "from now to the year 3797"<ref>Nostradamus (1555), Preface</ref>—an extraordinary date which, given that the preface was written in 1555, may have more than a little to do with 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.<ref>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)</ref>{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|p=53}} Additionally, scholars have pointed out that almost all English translations of Nostradamus's quatrains are of extremely poor quality: they seem to display little or no knowledge of 16th-century French, are [[Prejudice|tendentious]], and are sometimes intentionally altered in order to make them fit whatever events to which the translator believed they were supposed to refer (or vice versa).{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|p=144}}{{sfn|Randi|1990}}{{sfn|Wilson|2003}} 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.{{sfn|Leoni|1961|p=115}} None of this research and criticism was originally known to most of the English-language commentators, by dint of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, the language in which it was written.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|pp=144–148}} 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.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} An additional indictment is found in a connection to Nazi propaganda. Goebbels reportedly adduced some of Nostradamus' work to be Third Reich references. This allegedly was done to make it look like the 1,000-year triumphant reign of the German people that was expected under Nazism had been prophesied by Nostradamus. In particular, a line referring to "that people which stands under the sign of the crooked cross" was added as an allusion to the German people standing under the Nazi flag with its swastika. Goebbels reportedly had that line inserted into leather bound original volumes of Nostradamus' work, volumes that were then seeded in libraries across Nazi-occupied Europe so that the line would seem credible. {{sfn|Meissner|1980|p=27}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page