The Prophecies

by Nostradamus

  4.79 Monhurt…Eguillon: Towns in the region of Agen.

  4.80 great conduit: Cf. 5.58; 8.27; 8.68; 10.89.

  4.82 The ancient Vandal: The French term L’Olestant is derived from the Greek olestai, destroyer. Romania: Ancient Roman or contemporary Vatican lands.

  4.85 The black coal…the white coal: I follow Lemesurier’s translation (“The black plague follows on the white plague’s heels”), substituting “coal” for “plague.” While observing that the French charbon can mean, in addition to coal, “also a Carbuncle or Plague-sore,” Cotgrave’s 1611 Dictionarie further specifies that charbon blanc is “a kind of coale made of wood of the crimson, or pricklie, cedar,” hence presumably of a higher quality than black coal. The Moorish Camel: François I had been given a camel in 1553; it was featured in his ceremonial entry into Rouen in 1550. Cf. 3.90.

  4.88 Antoine: Antoine Duprat, cardinal of Sens and Chancellor of the Realm, suspected of having manipulated the metals in coins, dead of gangrene in 1535. phthiriasis: Eyelid infection caused by crab lice.

  4.89 Fries: Friesland, province in the north of the Netherlands.

  4.91 Mellila: Moroccan port?

  4.92 dissevered head: Cf. Plutarch’s “Life of Pompey”—whose severed head was presented to Julius Caesar after he had been assassinated on board ship by Ptolemy, the last king of Egypt.

  4.93 Near her royal bed…A snake: Cf. Suetonius, “Life of Augustus” (II, 104), for the omens surrounding his birth.

  4.97 Mercury, Mars, Venus retrograding: The conjunction suggests 1502, date of birth of the future king of Portugal John III.

  4.98 The troops of Alba: Fernando, Duke of Alba (1507–1582), chief military commander of Imperial forces of Charles V. Cf. 7.29; 8.40; 8.60.

  4.100 Rouen, Évreux: Cf. 5.84.

  CENTURY V

  5.3 Sea-Frog: Probably the Ottoman pirate-admiral Barbarossa, brief ally of François I against Charles V in Italy in 1533. Cf. 1.74; 4.58; 4.59; 5.95.

  5.6 Laying his hand: Cf. Livy’s account in his History of Rome (I, 18) of the coronation of Numa Pompilius, as described in Guillaume du Choul’s contemporary Discours de la religion des anciens Romains (1556). Cf. 5.75.

  5.7 The bones of the Triumvir: I.e., Octavius, later known as Augustus. Cf. 3.65; 6.66.

  5.11 Solars: Brind’Amour decodes as follows: Sun = Sunday = Christians; Venus = Friday = Muslims; Saturn = Saturday = Jews.

  5.12 a foreign maid: Cf. 2.25.

  5.13 Pannonia: Region between the former Yugoslavia and Hungary.

  5.14 Saturn & Mars in Leo: 1535–36, or July 1564.

  5.16 Tears of Saba: Frankincense or myrrh?

  5.20 Just before the ravening monster’s born: The 1512 expulsion of the Medici from Florence by the French, shortly before the discovery of the Ravenna monster that same year? Cf. 2.32.

  5.22 The two red ones: Cardinals?

  5.23 The two rivals shall then come to unite: May allude to the brief alliance of François I and Charles V (the Roman “duumvirate”) in the summer of 1539—astrologically marked by the conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury in Cancer. A similar conjunction in Leo was foretold for mid-July 1594: cf. the first line of 5.25. The African lord: The sultan of Algiers, object of a projected Spanish invasion in 1541?

  5.24 Venus…Sun…Saturnine: Cf. the note to 5.11.

  5.27 Mar Negro: The Black Sea. The final o in the French Negro and alegro is silent. Trebizond: Black Sea port, capital of the Greek empire from 1204 to 1461. Pharos: Island in the harbor of Alexandria, site of the celebrated lighthouse. Mytilene: The Greek isle of Lesbos. Sol allegro: Joyous Christians?

  5.29 Ister: The Danube.

  5.32 seventh stone: The Tarpeian Rock, seventh of the Roman hills?

  5.35 Seline sea: The lunar (or salty) sea. The Atlantic Ocean? Which still bears the name of rock: Probably alludes to the “free city” of La Rochelle. Cf. 2.1; 4.16.

  5.38 Salic law: Frankish law excluding women from inheriting property or succeeding to the throne of France.

  5.39 Born of the true branch: Quatrain composed in honor of Catherine de Médicis after Nostradamus’s visit to the court in the summer of 1555. Recycled by César de Nostredame into an inscription celebrating the entry of Marie de Médicis into Salon-de-Provence in 1600.

  5.42 the Allobroges: Ancient tribe of the Narbonne region.

  5.44 the red one: Most likely a Church cardinal.

  5.45 Ahenobarbus: Red-beard, Barbarossa. Nero’s family name. Cf. 1.74; 5.59.

  5.46 Cardinals feuding, creating schisms: May allude to the Great Schism of 1378, although the two popes involved were Neapolitan (Urban VI) and Genevan (Clement VII). Alba: May allude to the Alban War of the seventh century B.C.E., described by Livy—a model civil war, given that the Romans were said to be descended (via Romulus) from the kings of Alba Longa.

  5.47 The Pannonian: Cf. 5.13; 5.48.

  5.49 the wavering barque: The “navicula Petri,” symbol of the Catholic Church. Cf. 1.4.

  5.50 Romania: The Papal States around Rome.

  5.51 Dacia: Present-day Romania. Pillars of Hercules: Strait of Gibraltar. Barcino: Barcelona.

  5.53 The creeds of Sol & Venus: Christianity and Islam. See note to 5.11.

  5.54 Alany: Sarmatian Scythia.

  5.56 When the Pope dies: Pope Paul III died in 1549 at the age of eighty-one, succeeded by the controversial Julius III, age sixty-two.

  5.57 Aventine: One of the seven hills of Rome. Mount Gaussier: Just south of Saint-Rémy (Nostradamus’s birthplace in Provence), this mount features two holes through which the troops of Charles V were espied during the Imperial invasion of Provence in 1536. Saint-Paul-de-Mausole: For the Latin inscription on this local Saint-Rémy mausoleum, see note to 4.27.

  5.58 the aqueduct: The Pont du Gard, Roman aqueduct over the river Gardon between Uzès and Nîmes. Cf. 4.80; 8.27; 8.68; 10.89.

  5.59 Ahenobarbus: See note to 5.45.

  5.60 His tongue shall run: The current pope, Paul IV (1476–1559), a former monk and extreme proponent of the Inquisition?

  5.61 Mount Cenis: Mountain in French Savoy.

  5.62 Orgon: Command post on the river Durance in the Alpilles, north of Nostradamus’s Salon. Tridental: Ship with trident; alluding to Neptune. Or perhaps Tridentine: i.e., pertaining to the Council of Trent (1545–63).

  5.66 Sun & Moon: Gold and silver. the golden goat: Local legend had it that the ancient Roman ruins of Saint-Rémy (which included an aqueduct) contained a buried treasure guarded by a golden goat (tragos in Provençal). Cf. 8.28; 9.9; 9.12; 9.32; 10.6.

  5.68 The mighty Camel: An Arab leader? the Cock: Emblem of the Kingdom of France.

  5.69 Conquer Africa: Charles V’s triumph over the forces of Barbarossa at Tunis in 1535?

  5.72 Venus: Muslims? Cf. note to 5.11.

  5.73 Polonians: Poles? Inhabitants of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole?

  5.74 a German great: The Hapsburg Charles V, born in Flemish Ghent, grandson of the “Trojan” (i.e., French) Mary of Burgundy?

  5.75 seated on the squarish rock: Charles V’s triumphal entry into Rome in 1536, recalling Numa Pompilius’s inauguration as second king of Rome? Cf. 5.6; 6.78.

  5.76 he shall pitch his camp: Charles V’s raids throughout Provence? Cf. 5.57.

  5.77 Quirinal: From Quirinus, an early Sabine god of war and, in Augustine Rome, an epithet of Janus. A play on the Roman priests who went by such names as flamen quirinalis, flamen martialis, flamen vulcanalis. Prévost sees an allusion to Constable Anne de Montmorency’s fall from grace during the reign of François I in 1540–41. Cf. 4.61.

  5.78 allies thirteen years: The thirteen-year alliance (1534–47) between Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III against the Ottoman corsair Barbarossa? the barque & its cope: The Vatican and the pope’s ecclesiastical cloak.

  5.79 the great legislator: Cf. 1.50; 10.71; 10.73.

  5.80 Ogmion: The Gallic Hercules. See the note to 1.96.

  5.81 solar city: Cf. 1.8. The sack of Rome by
Imperial forces in early May 1527, linked to the omens (reported by Suetonius) surrounding the assassination of Julius Caesar? Cf. 2.57; 2.93; 10.27.

  5.82 Arbois…Dole: Towns on France’s eastern border with Savoy.

  5.84 Rouen & Évreux: Cf. 4.100.

  5.85 the latest rage: Protestantism, associated with a plague of locusts around Lake Geneva in lines 3–4.

  5.87 Trojan blood: See note to 1.19.

  5.88 A sea monster: Cf. 1.29.

  5.90 Perinthus, Larissa, Cyclades: Town in Thrace, town in Thessaly, Greek island group, respectively. Chersonese: Today’s Gallipoli Peninsula.

  5.91 marketplace of lies: Hippocrates and Galen describing the forum of Athens.

  5.95 The Sea-Frog: Cf. 5.3. Barbarossa?

  5.96 The rose: Cf. 5.31. Crouzet compares this to the “candida rosa” that Beatrice offers Dante when he reaches the final circle of Paradise (Paradiso XXXI, 1–3).

  5.97 Condom: Town in southwestern France on the pilgrimage route to Compostela.

  5.98 Scrawny fish: Cf. 2.3. Béarn & Bigorre: Towns in Gascony, southwestern France.

  5.99 an old Britannic chief: Adrian IV was the sole pope of British origin. During his reign (1154–59), Milan rebelled, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa invaded northern Italy, Capua burned, and the Norman king William I of Sicily took Brindisi.

  5.100 Carcas.: Carcassonne. Comminges was ancient county seat of Bigorre in Gascony. Foix, Auch, Mazères: Towns in the Pyrenees. Hessians, Saxons, Thuringians: Inhabitants of three regions of Germany.

  CENTURY VI

  6.2 In the year fifteen eighty: Contemporary astrologers predicted great changes around the year 1580. In January of that year, as well as in January of 1703 (line 3), there was to be a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Aries.

  6.3 The stream: The Rhine? According to Garencières, “The ancient Frenchmen when they had a King newly born, they used to put him upon a Target [i.e., a shield] to make him swim up on that River [Rhine], to try whether by his swimming he was lawfully begotten or no.”

  6.4 Agrippine’s city: Cologne. Cf. 3.53. Saturn, Leo, Mars, Cancer: In 1594, Saturn would be in Leo and Mars in Cancer.

  6.5 Samarobryn: Amiens (from the Latin Samarobriva).

  6.6 the star with the beard: Halley’s comet was visible from August to September 1531, traversing Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra. More likely, however, the comet referred to here is the one that was visible between June and August 1533, moving from Gemini toward Aries, contiguous to Cancer. During this same year the Ottoman corsair Barbarossa, having plundered the Ligurian and Tuscan coast, withdrew to Thrace. Susa: Cf. 2.16. Boeotia: Region of Greece north of Attica and the Gulf of Corinth. Eretrion: Erythrea, in Ionia. Rome’s lord shall die the night it disappears: Following the ominous comet and ensuing eclipse of 1533, Pope Clement VII died in 1534.

  6.7 Norneigre: Norway? Dacia: Roughly corresponds to modern Romania.

  6.8 Scholars & letters to be held quite cheap: Cf. 1.62.

  6.12 Aspire: The town of Spire in the German Palatinate?

  6.15 when Capricorn is thin: The period from December 10 to January 10.

  6.16 Milve: French term for a female kite. Also a pun on the city of Milan (French milan = kite)? Negresilve: Black Forest (from the Latin nigra sylva).

  6.17 the Saturnines: The Jews? Cf. 5.11; 5.24.

  6.20 The sham alliance: The Holy League of 1538, which allied Pope Paul III, Emperor Charles V, and the Republic of Venice against the Ottoman emperor Süleyman the Magnificent? Cf. 5.78.

  6.22 The barque: Here, as elsewhere, the “navicula Petri,” the barque of St. Peter, i.e., the Vatican. Cf. 1.4; 5.49.

  6.23 Rapis: Anagram for Paris?

  6.24 When Mars & Jupiter come to conjoin: Mars and Jupiter were conjoined in Cancer in 1539, 1551, 1575, 1586, and 1611, here announcing the anointment of the Messianic King.

  6.25 the fisherman: St. Peter. the hierarchy: Cf. 2.69.

  6.27 Chyren Selin: Henri II. See notes to 2.73; 2.79; 4.77.

  6.28 the Cock: Symbol of France.

  6.32 Berich: The Berry region of France?

  6.33 Alus: Roman divinity, according to Petey-Girard; or perhaps Halus, the Parthian town mentioned by Tacitus in his Annals of Imperial Rome.

  6.35 Trion: The Bear constellations (from the Latin Triones).

  6.39 Trasimen: Lake Trasimeno in Umbria.

  6.42 Ogmion: The Gallic Hercules (see note to 1.96). To Henri II (the “great Selin” of line 2) was born a son by the name of Hercule on March 18, 1555; his name was later changed to François, given his sickly, that is, less than Herculean, constitution.

  6.46 Nonseggle: From Nom-de-sceau (sigilla in Latin, as in the Sigillaria [Market of Seals] in Rome)? Frog: Cf. 5.3.

  6.49 Mammer: Messina (Mammertina in Latin).

  6.51 Pillars, walls fall: Cf. 3.40; 6.37.

  6.54 Bougie: Coastal city four hundred miles west of Tunis, the stronghold of the Barbary pirates (taken by the Spanish in 1535). the Moroccan King: Probably alludes to the assassination of King Mohammed al-Mahdi by the pasha of Algiers in 1557, following Turkish military operations in the Maghreb—projected fifty years into the future in the last line.

  6.55 Tripolis: Modern Tirebolu, port on the Black Sea. Chios: Aegean island off the coast of Asia Minor. Trebizond: City on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea; traditional rival of Constantinople until it fell to the Turks in 1462.

  6.57 the hierarchy: Cf. 6.25.

  6.58 When the sunlight is eclipsed: The solar eclipse of the summer of 1551? This marked a period of growing conflict between King Henri II (the moon) and Emperor Charles V (the sun), leading to the French-sponsored rebellion of Siena in 1552 and a pact between Henri and the Turkish pirate Turgut that allowed French forces to land in Corsica in 1553.

  6.59 The lady enraged: Perhaps Diane de Poitiers, furious upon discovering King Henri II’s liaison with Lady Fleming in 1550, which resulted in the birth of a child the following spring. Seventeen shall be denied survival: The Edict of Châteaubriant, proclaimed in 1551, accelerated the burning at the stake of heretics.

  6.60 Rochelle…Blaye: The Aquitaine salt-tax revolt of 1548?

  6.61 so fierce shall he grow: The Duke of Guise, who broke Emperor Charles V’s siege of Metz in 1552?

  6.63 The lady left alone upon the throne: Usually taken to refer to Catherine de Médicis, who lost her husband Henri II in July 1559 (two years after the publication of this quatrain) and then remained in mourning for seven years.

  6.66 They shall dig up the great Roman’s remains: Cf. 3.65; 5.7 for the unearthing of Augustus’s tomb in 1521. Luther had been threatened with ex-communication the previous year.

  6.70 great Chyren: Henri II as successor to the empire of Charles V. See notes to 2.73; 2.79; 4.77. Plus ultra: The device of Emperor Charles V was “PLVS VLTRA CAROL’ QUINT” accompanied by the two columns of Hercules (signifying Gibraltar). This motto, “Plus Outre,” ambitiously contradicts Dante’s description of the columns as a limit for Ulyssean ambitions: “a ciò che l’uom più oltre non si metta” (Inferno, XXVI).

  6.71 Before he has even drawn his last breath: The abdication of the fifty-five-year-old Charles V in 1555, opening the way for the supremacy of Henri II?

  6.75 the mighty pilot: Probably refers to the career of Gaspard II de Coligny (1519–1572), raised to the rank of admiral of France by Henri II in 1552. Cf. 4.62; 8.57.

  6.76 The ancient town founded by Antenor: Padua.

  6.78 great Crescent Selene: Usually refers to the moon-king (see note to 4.77). Here, more likely the Turkish (i.e., crescent) ruler Süleyman the Magnificent. Eagle: Charles V, making his triumphant entry into Rome in 1536, after his victory over Barbarossa at Tunis the previous year. Cf. 5.6; 5.78. Basil: King (from the Greek basileos). I.e., a French king?

  6.80 Blue turbans: Persians? Cf. 2.2.

  6.83 a great celebrity: Philip II, who succeeded Charles V as king of Spain in 1556 and who lived in the Netherlands during the early years of his
reign? the flower: France’s fleur-de-lis?

  6.84 He who’s too lame: Cf. 3.73.

  6.85 Tarsus: City in south-central Turkey. St. Urban’s Day: May 25.

  6.87 Frankfurt: Charles V’s brother, Ferdinand of Hapsburg, would be coronated Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt in 1558. Milan: Philip had been invested with Milan by Charles V in 1542, but never drove Ferdinand out of Germany as lines 3–4 would suggest.

  6.89 The faithless lover: I follow Brind’Amour’s emendation (“furtive amour”).

  6.90 Neptune: May refer to the Baron de la Garde, as in 2.5; 2.59; 2.78; 3.1.

  6.91 in a bale: Cf. 6.27. an Agrippan son: Term for a male child whose birth was difficult.

  6.94 wreckers of the see: I.e., Protestant heretics.

  6.98 Volcae: A Gallic people from the Narbonne region who conquered most of southern Europe and part of Asia in the late fourth and early third centuries B.C.E. Their great city: Toulouse, plundered by the Roman army under Consul Caepio in 106 B.C.E., as recounted by Strabo. Cf. 1.27; 8.29.

  6.99 Pennines: The section of the Alps between the St. Bernard and St. Gotthard passes, associated with Hannibal.

  6.100 Incantation of the Law: Latin quatrain lifted from Petrus Crinitus, De honesta disciplina (1543), here rendered into alexandrines.

  CENTURY VII

  7.1 The treasure arch: Cf. 4.27 and 5.66, for the reference to the ancient Mausoleum of the Julii at Glanum, whose western facade contains a representation of the death of Achilles, a panel presumably hiding the treasure guarded by the golden goat.

  7.3 Barchinons: Inhabitants of Spanish Barcelona or French Barcelone (in today’s Drôme). Salians: Inhabitants of Provence. Phocaeans: Inhabitants of Marseille. Ptolon: Toulon?

  7.4 Langres: In eastern Champagne, Guise territory. Dole: In Spanish-held Franche-Comté. Ostun: Autun? Augsburg: In southwest Germany, scene of the diet that produced the Augsburg Confession (1530). Mirandole: Town in the duchy of Modena. Ancona: Town in the Papal States.

  7.8 Flora: Florence. Fiesole lies on its outskirts.