Michel de Nostredame was born in St-Rémy in 1503, and, educated as a physician, he first received recognition for his innovative treatment of plague victims. It wasn't until the latter part of his life that his interest in astrology and the occult would lead to the publication of The Prophecies of Michel Nostradamus, a collection of 942 prophetic quatrains. Already well known in his own day, Nostradamus used a deliberately obscure and cryptic writing style for fear that he would be persecuted by the authorities were they to understand completely his predictions. The end result was some extremely ambiguous French verse, which has since been the subject of numerous forgeries, urban legends and some very liberal interpretations. Today he is most often given credit for predicting the rise of Napoléon and Hitler, and major catastrophes such as the Great Fire of London in 1666. While Nostradamus may or may not have been able to accurately foresee the future, his success as a writer remains undisputed: his collection of prophecies, now known as Centuries, has been kept in print continuously since its first publication in 1551.
|
