Nostradamus
NostradamusNostradamus was a physician and astrologer that lived during the fourteenth century. His insights in to modern day occurrences have astounded millions, and it leaves them wondering about the translations of his prophecies that have not occurred yet, particularly his perspicacity about the end of the world.
Nostradamus was born in Saint Remi, in southern France, and was raised as a Roman Catholic. He studied medicine in Montpellier, and started a practice about 1525. Soon after, he began to treat victims of the plague in communities of southern France. “Nostradamus used innovative methods of treatment, and his success in curing extremely ill patients earned him a reputation as a specially gifted healer” (Encarta 96). Catherine de Medicis, queen of France, asked him to plot the horoscopes of her husband, King Henry II, and their children. In 1560, King Charles IX of France appointed Nostradamus court physician. The place that he holds in today’s history books, however, art not about his success as a physician.
Apart from his professional works he produced a number of prophetic works. We discern between the Centuries and the Prognostications. The Prognostications are like an Almanac. They contain a series of Predictions about the next year. Because these predictions were fulfilled (or not) more than 440 years ago few are interested in them.
“The really interesting stuff is the Centuries. This name comes from the fact that each Century contains 100 prophetic verses of 4 lines. These verses are called quatrains. Nostradamus wrote 10 Centuries, which are commonly numbered by roman numerals I to X.” (Flanagan WWW)
Nostradamus left his predictions in the form of several letters, almost 1000 4-line verses called quatrains (the Centuries), and a collection of 6-line verses called sixains. The prophesies are not sequential by date. Some interesting coincidences have been observed between the quatrain number (in the Centuries) and the last two digits of the year of the corresponding event, but this is not uniformly true. For unknown reasons, Century VII contains only 42 quatrains. The reason behind this is unknown. However, there are publications with more than 42 verses. Although these are written in the style of Nostradamus we can not be sure about their origin.
Nostradamus’s writings are all very obscure. “This was done to avoid persecution from the Inquisition. He also gives this as the reason why the quatrains are not in chronological order.” (Flanagan WWW). Another possible explanation for the obscurity of the quatrains has to do with the breadth of Nostradamus' visions. His visions seem to span thousands of years. It was probably difficult for him to describe 20th and 21st century technology using 16th century French. Also, it is possible that a single quatrain could refer to several events. The incorporation of 'links' to several different events would further increase the obscurity of a quatrain. Other reasons for the obscurity include: the use of language that was, even when written, archaic, use of anagrams and unknown names, use of astrological or mythological...
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