A Poet for the Centuries



On this very date in fifteen hundred and sixty-six

A poet and physician left the world as he found it

But, only after making several hundred prophecies

Written in four-line rhymed verses - quatrains, like these



Collected together and published as Centuries ...

Predictions thru to the end of the world are seen*

Which have been interpreted as accurate till now

For everything written has happened (quite a bow!)



But since most of it was prophesied in vague terms

The critics amongst us have balked, declaring them 

Invalid ... and open to interpretation all the way thru

And thus, Nostradamus's life - must have been, too!



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

10:35am Friday, July 2nd, 1999



Born - Michel de Nostredeme, Saint Remi, France 1503

Died - Nostradamus, July 2nd, 1566 in Salon, France



Highpoints of his life:



Began medical practice in Montpelier in 1525

(He used innovative treatment methods, earning

a reputation as an especially gifted healer ...)



Began writing prophecies in Salon in 1550

Queen Catherine de Medicis, asked Nostradamus

to plot the astrological horoscopes of King Henry II

and each and every one of their children.



King Charles IX appointed him court physician - 1560



NB

Henry II died of a head-wound sustained June 30th, 1559 

... during a tournament celebrating the Treaty

of Cateau-Cambresis, and his daughter's marriage.



Nostradamus thus had one of his earliest prophesies

realized, as he had predicted Henry's death (and its

manner) in Centuries - published seven years earlier.



* The end of the world is predicted by Nostradamus

to happen in AD 3797 ...