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The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best astronomers that ever were. / A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated and commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond. cover

The true prophecies or prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best astronomers that ever were. / A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated and commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

Chapter 1: TO THE Courteous Reader.
By Nostradamus
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About This Book

A collection of cryptic prophetic quatrains written in archaic French and organized with astrological references, presented alongside a near‑literal English translation and extensive commentary. The verses use compact metaphor, omen-like imagery, and historical allusion, often leaving meanings ambiguous and dates indeterminate; the translator’s preface and notes explain astrological terms, unpack obscure phrasings, and caution readers about multiple possible interpretations. The work functions as both a repository of terse forecasts and a study in how celestial symbolism and elliptical language shape uncertain predictions rather than deliver precise, timeable events.

TO THE
Courteous Reader.

Reader,

Before thou goest on further to the perusing of this Work, thou art humbly intreated by the Authour, to forgive him his Anglicisme; for being born a Forreigner, and having had no body to help him to the polishing of it, for several reasons, it cannot be expected he should please thine Ears, so much as he may perhaps do thy Fancy. Every Exotick Plant can hardly become Domestical under one or two Generations: Besides that, the Crabbedness of the Original in his own Idiome, can scarce admit a Polite Eloquency in another. The very Antient English Language in this refined Age, is become both obsolete and unintelligible, as we may see in Chaucer, Gower, and others. If you adde to this, that the Authours Nation hath been alwayes famous for its Civility to those that were Strangers to their Language, as not onely to abstain from laughing at them when they spoke amiss, but also in redressing them charitably to the best of their power. I may probably expect you will measure me with the same measure, as you would be if you were in my case.

As for the Errataes of the Press, I could not help them, being out of Town most part of the time that the Book was a Printing; when you meet with any, I hope your Charitable Pen will either mend or obliterate them, and not lay another mans fault upon me, who neither for pride nor ostentation undertook this laborious Work, but that I might give some Satisfaction and Recreation to the Learned and Curious, who have had a longing for it ever since its Birth.

Farewell.