Nostradamus 1503 – 1566

Biography

Nostradamus was born Michel de Nostredame in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, and studied medicine at Montpellier, though he may never have completed his degree. He worked as a plague doctor during epidemics in southern France, earning a reputation for unorthodox remedies, including cleanliness and fresh air. In 1555 he published the first part of Les Prophéties, a collection of nearly a thousand cryptic four-line verses, or quatrains, written in a mixture of French, Latin, Greek, and Provençal. The book made him famous across Europe, and Catherine de’ Medici summoned him to court. His followers have claimed his verses predicted events from the French Revolution to modern wars, though scholars read them as deliberately ambiguous. He died in Salon-de-Provence, France, in 1566. His Prophecies have never been out of print, and each new crisis brings fresh claims that his verses foretold it.