NOSTRADAMUS, Michael, an able physician and a celebrated astrologer, was descended of a noble Provençal family, and born on the 14th of December 1503, at St Remy, in the diocese of Avignon. By his grandfather he was initiated in the study of the mathematics, and he afterwards completed his courses of humanity and philosophy at the college of Avignon. Having repaired to Montpellier, he there applied himself to physic, till being forced away by the plague in 1525, he took his route towards Toulouse, and passed on till he reached Bordeaux. This course occupied him five years, during which he undertook the cure of all such patients as were willing to put themselves under his care. After this he returned to Montpellier, and, having been created doctor of his faculty in 1529, revisited the places where he had before practised physic. At Agen he contracted an acquaintance with Julius Caesar Scaliger, which induced him to make some stay in that town, where he married; but having buried his wife, and two children which she had brought him, he quitted Agen after a residence of about four years. On his return to Provence, he established himself first at Marseilles; but his friends having provided an advantageous match for him at Salon, he, in 1544, transported himself thither. In 1546, Aix being afflicted with the plague, he went thither at the solicitation of the inhabitants, and proved of great service; so that the town gave him a considerable pension for several years after the contagion ceased. Returning afterwards to Salon, he became a recluse, and employed his leisure in applying to his studies. He had for a longtime occasionally followed the trade of a conjurer, and now he began to think himself inspired, nay, miraculously illuminated with a prospect into futurity. As fast as these illuminations had discovered to him any future event, he entered it in writing, in enigmatical prose sentences; but revising them afterwards, he thought the sentences would appear more respectable, and would savour more of a prophetic spirit, if they were expressed in verse. This opinion determined him to throw them all into quatrains, and he afterwards ranged them into Centuries. When this was done, he hesitated about making them public, till reflecting that the time of many events which he had foretold was very near at hand, he determined to print them. This he did with a dedication addressed to his son Caesar, an infant only some months old, in the form of a letter or preface, dated the 1st of March 1555. This edition, which includes seven Centuries, was printed by Rigault at Lyons. He prefixed his name in Latin, but gave to his son Caesar the name as it is pronounced, Nôtradame.

The public were divided in their sentiments respecting this work. Many looked upon the author as a simple visionary or a fool; whilst by others he was accused of the black art, or magic, and treated as an impious person, who held a commerce with the devil. But there were not wanting persons who believed him to be really and truly endowed with the supernatural gift of prophecy. A few remained in suspense, and refrained from giving any judgment at all respecting his pretensions. But Henry II. and Catherine of Medicis his mother, having resolved to see the prophet, he received orders to that effect, and immediately repaired to Paris. He was very graciously received at court, treated with extraordinary respect, and gratified with a present of two hundred crowns. He was afterwards sent to Blois to visit his majesty’s children there, and report what he should be able to discover concerning their destinies. No doubt he exerted himself to the utmost on this occasion, but the precise nature of his prognostications is not known; it is certain, however, that he returned to Salon loaded with honours and presents. Animated with his success, he augmented his work from three hundred quatrains to a complete milliad, and published it in 1558, with a dedication to the king. But that prince having died the next year, of a wound which he received at a tournament, the book of the prophet was immediately consulted; and in the 35th quatrain of the first century this unfortunate event was found predicted in the following verse: [7:16:279]Le lion jeune le vieux surmontera,

En champ bellique par singulier duel, Dans cage d’or les yeux lui crevera,

Deux classes une puis mourir, mort cruelle.

So remarkable a prediction added new wings to his fame, and he was shortly afterwards honoured with a visit from Emanuel duke of Savoy, and the Princess Margaret of France his consort. From this time Nostradamus found himself overburdened with visitors, and his fame daily increased. Charles IX. on visiting Salon, was eager to see him. Nostradamus, who then waited as one of the retinue of the magistrates, being instantly presented to his majesty, complained of the little esteem his countrymen had for him; upon which the monarch publicly declared, that he should hold the enemies of Nostradamus as his own, and further desired to see his children. Nor did that prince’s favour stop here. Not long afterwards, in passing through the city of Arles, he sent for Nostradamus, and presented him with a purse of two hundred crowns, together with a brevet, constituting him his physician in ordinary, with the same appointments as the rest. But the prophet enjoyed these honours only for the space of sixteen months, having died at Salon on the 2d of July 1566. Besides his Centuries, we have the following compositions of Nostradamus: A treatise de Far demens et de Senteurs, 1552; a Book of singular Receipts, pour Entretenir la Santé du Corps, 1556; a piece des Confitures, 1557; and a French Translation of the Latin of Galen’s Paraphrase, exhorting Menedolas to apply himself to study, especially to that of physic, 1552. Some years before his death, he published a small instruction for husbandmen, showing the best seasons for their several labours, which he entitled The Almanac of Nostradamus. Lastly, after his death there came out the eleventh and twelfth Centuries of his Quatrains. It is to these productions that the following pungent distich was applied:

Nostra damus cum falsa damus, nam fallere nostrum est, Et cum falsa damus, nil nisi Nostra damus.