Ian Wilson - Nostradamus: The Man Behind the Prophecies

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the authors copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.

Contents

PICTURE CREDITS

AUTHORS PREFACE TO 2002 EDITION

Books about Nostradamus are mostly written by so-called Nostradamians convinced that the sixteenth century Frenchman Michel de Nostredame had a genuine prophetic gift. Or by born-again sceptics like James Randi utterly determined to rubbish that idea. I belong to neither camp.

While I am no stranger to topics touching on the paranormal, I freely admit that until September 2001 Nostradamus had figured nowhere amongst my otherwise far-ranging list of interests. All that was changed by a message from my London publisher Trevor Dolby. Sent just six days after the horrifying destruction of New Yorks World Trade Center. Trevor e-mailed to my home in Australia: I dont know of a book on Nostradamus which looks objectively at the man, his times, his books, his prophecies and the psychology of why his prophecies are still rolled out (witness the last few days ). Is this something that might attract you?

As my wife Judith vividly recalls, my first reaction was a very firm No! To me all the speculation surrounding Nostradamus prophecies represented crank territory, which I had no taste to explore, either as true believer or sceptic. But Trevor had thoughtfully used the word objectively. And one of many advantages of the time differences between Queensland and London is that it gives you time to reflect, even to do a little research. Not possessing a single book on Nostradamus I consulted the Internet to find out what might be stocked on the subject by the 32 interlinked public libraries scattered throughout the Brisbane City Councils region. The computer screen offered me 34 different titles, many possessing that so unpalatable flavour of the bizarre. But the surprise was that in every library virtually every copy was shown as checked out or in transit. So what was going on out there? Given that Nostradamus lifetime was during the 16th century, a favourite historical period for me, and that he lived in Provence, where my wife and I had spent many happy camping vacations with our sons during their childhood, was it possible that there was a genuine need for a suitably serious Nostradamus biography?

Two weeks later, having forsaken Queenslands springtime sunshine for that of Provences autumn, Judith and I stepped out onto the tarmac at Marseilles airport, Trevor having set me a daunting deadline of April 30, 2002 to provide him with a complete 100,000 word biographical study. A highly intensive period of getting to know Nostradamus began.

In the event, eschewing as I did virtually every English-language book written on the subject, essentially all the documentation on which this book is based, much of it never before translated into English, is owed to two Frenchmen, and to one French-speaking Canadian. First, to the late Dr Edgar Leroy, a physician of Nostradamus birthplace St Rmy-de-Provence, who died in 1965. Leroy made exhaustive historical researches on Nostradamus, culminating in what for his time was by far the most authoritative French-language biography Nostradamus, Ses Origines, Sa Vie, Son Oeuvre posthumously published in 1972. Second, much is owed to Jean Dupbe, a scholar of the University of Paris, who patiently edited a Latin manuscript containing 51 letters to and from Nostradamus which in 1983 became published as Nostradamus Lettres Indites. Third, I am particularly deeply indebted to the late Pierre BrindAmour, Professor of Ancient Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada, who sadly died in only his mid-fifties in 1995, but whose superbly-researched Nostradamus Astrophile, published in 1993 with innumerable historical quotations, has also provided much source material for this present work.

Since I do not profess any gifts as a linguist, one of the obstacles to be overcome has been a necessarily grappling not only with modern French, but also with documents in sixteenth century French and Latin, many of the latter never before translated into English. Conversely, in the case of Nostradamus famous prophetic verses, the available English language translations are mostly so bad that I have preferred to avoid them and devise my own version, providing in a footnote the original text to enable those with specialist expertise to check my translation. Since this book is directed to the general reader with very likely little or no familiarity with French, I have in the text almost invariably translated French book titles into English, and supplied the original French wording via a footnote. Important to note, however, is that where in the original printing a u may have been used where we would expected a v, and an f (without crossbar) where we would expect an s I have automatically made the substitution without noting it.

Frustratingly, it has not been possible to consult the full texts of all the materials that I would have wished, access to Nostradamus Almanacs presenting a particular difficulty. Not only have far from all of these survived, even as a single copy, some of those that have are in very reclusive private hands, their owners being rather more concerned with their value as a financial asset than with the historical value of their contents. A number of quoted extracts from these therefore derive from secondary sources.

Some very special thanks are due to Jacqueline Allemand, Directrice of the Maison de Nostradamus in Salon de Provence, who kindly allowed me a full morning studying the Nostradamus materials in her collection, including her facsimile edition of Csar de Nostredames Histoire et Chronique de Provence. I am most grateful also to Mme Marielle Mouranche, chief conservator at the Mediathque, Albi for granting my wife and I access to the rare first edition of Nostradamus Propheties in her care. Also to Professor Gian Maria Zaccone of Turin for obtaining an important article on the Nostradamus inscription in Turin. To Kristina Eriksson of the Royal Library, Stockholm, Sweden for arranging a microfilm of the horoscope that Nostradamus cast for Prince Rudolf of Austria. To Dr Elmar Gruber for information on otherwise unknown French language versions of this same manuscript. Also to my wifes cousin Sheelagh Barry of Canada for tracing and obtaining a copy of Professor BrindAmours book.

As always the staff of the University of Queenslands libraries have been immensely helpful, obtaining books from even as far afield as the USA where these have not been available within Australia. Without the far-sightedness and initiative of Trevor Dolby of my publishers Orion, also the ever-enthusiastic encouragement of my editor Pandora White, this book would never have come into being. I am also particularly grateful for the assiduousness of copy-editor Elisabeth Ingles, who working right up to within hours of her getting married went way beyond the call of duty to check my translations from French and Latin, thereby saving me from a number of elementary errors. Because my grasp of German is very limited, for the translation of Nostradamus Prince Rudolf horoscope I sought the help of German-speaking residents of Bellbowrie, the pleasant outer suburb of Brisbane where my wife and I have spent seven very happy years until a house move almost immediately following this books completion. I am very grateful to Vroni and Erwin Kern, to Andrea Schaffer, also to the friends and relatives whom they in their turn consulted, for all their efforts to decipher this documents so elusive 16th century handwriting.

Finally, and far from least, I am as always immensely indebted to my wife Judith, who made herself photographer-in-chief during our October 2001 Nostradamus research travels around France, checked my every chapter at the manuscript stage, and unstintingly helped in innumerable other ways.