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.

ANNOT.

The two last Verses make me think that this Prophesie was fulfilled in the time of Henry II. King of France, because the French being then friends to the Pope, went over the Alpes to serve him.

This Stanza might also be applyed to Lewis 13, who caused his Army to go beyond the Alpes, but that word Friends is more convenient to the time of Henry II. because the French went then over the Alpes in quality of friends to serve the Pope.

According to this conjecture, the wolf which signifieth the Spaniard, came anno 1556. into many Towns, which the Duke of Alba took, as we have said in another place, and because among those Towns Neptune was one of the most considerable, being seated by the Sea side near Rome: I believe that by this word City he meaneth that Town which belonged to the Colonese.

And to say truth, the French were then very near it, to endeavour the relief of it.

Afterwards came the Duke of Guise’s Army, which is named by the Author, an Army of strangers, because the French and Germans are strangers to Italy. This Army shall spoil a great Countrey; for in that year it went through all Italy, and where an Army passeth, nothing but ruine can be expected.

XXXIV.

ANNOT.

The sense of this is, that when the Sun shall be Eclipsed at noon, a Monster shall be born, which shall presage a dearth, though no body will believe it, because they were unprovided against it.

XXXV.

ANNOT.

This needeth no explication.

XXXVI.

ANNOT.

Many persons (according to Histories being only in a fit of Apoplexy) have been buried for dead, and being afterwards taken out of the ground, have been found to have eaten up their hands, as I my self have seen one digged out of Saint Bartholomews Church-yard, about the time that the City of London began to be weary of Cromwels devices and Tyranny, yet I would not here definitively assert, he was the man here pointed at by the Title and Epithete of Heretical man, unless it were in the point of government.

XXXVII.

ANNOT.

The sense of this is easie.

XXXVIII.

ANNOT.

Two kind of Nations were led into Italy by the Duke of Guise to succour the Pope, viz. French and Germans, meaning by the Germans all those that use the German Tongue, as Switzers, &c.

The Author saith, these two Nations were led beyond the Mountains, because they went beyond the Apennine Alpes, to come down into the Champion Countrey of Italy, where some of them died by the Sword, others by famine and sickness; others lost their liberty, being made prisoners of War, others were exposed to the inconveniences that attend a ruined Army. He addeth, that these accidents shall befall them in a Month near the Vintage, that Month is September: He calleth it Contrary, because the Grapes being ripe, the starved Souldiers did eat abundance of them, and so fell into a bloody flux. The Pope’s Tenants made use of this Stratagem to ruine that Army.

The Spaniard had his revenge the year following, for the Duke of Guise having missed his design, and being stept before Civitella, and incensed that the Pope did not keep his word with him, he resolved to go back again into France, and so the Pope did by the means of the Common-wealth of Venice, and of the Duke of Florence, it was concluded and signed with the 23 of September.

This is the Authors meaning in the 4 Verse, that all the misfortune which befell the French, was by reason of that peace; for the Pope disbanded his Troops, consisting most of French and Switzers, the greatest part of whom fell into the hands of their enemies, and of the Countrey people, others died of sickness. It is true, that the Duke of Guise brought his own Army back without much loss, but the Author speaketh here of the Gascons and Switzers, that were in the Pope’s service, under the command of Marshal Strozzy, Monluc, Cardinal Caraffa, and others.

The time of this peace agreeth with the Prophesie, for it was concluded on the 23 of September, which is a Month near the Vintage.

XXXIX.

ANNOT.

There shall be seven persons, who shall be three Months in making an agreement to go beyond the Apennines, but they shall be hindred by a tempest, and by the cowardliness of the Genoeses.

XL.

ANNOT.

This must be put among Insolubilia de Alliaco.

XLI.

ANNOT.

This needs no explication.

XLII.

ANNOT.

Those two Prodigies mentioned in the two first Verses, do presage a great Famine that shall ensue a few years after.

XLIII.

ANNOT.

The Tar, the Lot, and the Garone, are three Rivers of Gascony, the Inhabitants of which are forewarned not to go over the Apennine Mountains, or else they shall meet with their Graves near Rome and Ancona. This hath relation to the 38 Stanza, and to the interpretation thereof, therefore vide.

XLIV.

ANNOT.

It is a Dog that shall come howling and leaping to his Mistresses friends; because she was killed and suspended in the Air by the Lightning.

XLV.

ANNOT.

I suppose these five strangers to be five Commissioners, for the altering something in the Government of Thoulouse, who shall be all killed in a Church, and the ground prophaned by their blood, according to the Romish opinion.

XLVI.

ANNOT.

The City of Plancus is Lion, because he was the Founder of it. That City is threatned here of a sudden change, caused neither by her goodness or wickedness, but by a certain position and aspect of the fixed Stars, which makes it fatal.

XLVII.

ANNOT.

Mitylene is an Island of the Archipelago, belonging to the Turk.

XLVIII.

ANNOT.

By the next hope, he meaneth the reprieve. The rest is clear.

XLIX.

ANNOT.

Rouan is the chief City of the Province of Normandie, and Chartres the chief City of that of Beausse.

L.

ANNOT.

It is hard to know what he meaneth by the great City wherein there is a Common-wealth, whether it be Venice, Genoa, Geneva, Luca, or some of the Cities of Switzerland; but it seemeth that a King shall take shelter in it, who shall be summoned by a Trumpet to come out, but the City will not suffer it, for which the said City shall be scaled, and repent.

LI.

ANNOT.

The Prophecy contained in the two first Verses came to pass in the time of Henry the III. King of France, when the Parisians did rebel against him, and made Barricadoes in the streets, thinking to have taken him, who was compelled to run away for his life, and fly to Chartres. This rebellion was raised and fomented by Henry of Lorraine Duke of Guise, whom the King afterwards caused to be murdered, with his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, at the Convention of the three Estates kept at Blois.

Orleans, Angers, Troyes, Langres, are remarkable Cities in France.

LII.

ANNOT.

Campania, and Apulia are two Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples.

The last two Verses of the Prophecy came to pass about the years 1630 and 1631. when Gustavus Adolphus King of Swedeland, called here the Lion, brought the Empire (signified by the Eagle) to extremity; the King of France signified by the Cock, looking upon, and underhand assisting him.

LIII.

ANNOT.

Nuremberg, Ausbourg, and Basil are Cities of Germany.

By Agrippine is understood the City of Cologne, called in Latine Colonia Agrippina, from the Founderess of it Agrippina, Mother of the Emperour Nero, or from M. Agrippa favourite of Augustus Cæsar.

LIV.

ANNOT.

This is so plain, that it needeth no interpretation.

LV.

ANNOT.

The meaning of the first Verse is, when a King having but one eye shall Reign in France.

Blois is a City in France upon the River Loire.

LVI.

ANNOT.

Montauban is a Town in Gascony, Nismes and Besiers are Towns in Languedoc; Avignon is a Town in France belonging to the Pope, which shall suffer these damages by Lightning at the end of March.

LVII.

ANNOT.

The two first Verses concern England; the third France; the fourth marketh the time by the motion of the Sign of Aries, which shall be favourable to France.

We shall leave the two first Verses to be interpreted by the English Nation, which is most concerned in it, and come to the last two, which concern France.

The third Verse saith that France shall not change as England, by reason of the help it shall have from Germany, which hath been made good already for these hundred years, notwithstanding the Wars between Henry II. and the Spaniard; the Conspiracy of the Protestant party against Francis the II. at Amboise; the civil Wars under Charles the IX. the League under Henry III. and Henry IV. the Forrain Wars under Lewis XIII. and Lewis XIV. now Reigning.

The Authors meaning by these words, but France not, is, you shall not see France change seven times in two hundred ninety years, as the Brittish nation, and then he giveth the reason of it, by German help, that is to say, that France shall have help from Germany.

The fourth Verse saith, that during those two hundred ninety years, Aries doubleth his Bastarnan Pole, to understand this, we must suppose first that the Sign of Aries ruleth over France, Palestine, Bastarnia, &c.

Secondly, we must learn from Ptolomy and other Geographers, that Bastarnia containeth the people that are towards Sarmatia or Poland, which were called by the Ancients, the people of Admone, Sidane, Roxolane, and by others Peucins, from the Island Peuce, which is in Istria.

Thirdly, we must suppose, that the Sign of Aries hath two Poles, the first is that of the Æquinoctial Line, and the second, that of the Eccliptick, because the Sign of Aries beginneth just in the Line of the Equator, and afterwards stretcheth towards the North. Now it is so that the place where its extension endeth in the Eccliptical Line of the Sun, is called by the Author the Bastarnan Pole.

It is a Pole sith in the constellations of Heaven, we call Poles, the two ends or extremities of them, and in the constellations of the Zodiack, we call the first Pole that which is next to the Equator, and the second Pole that which stretcheth towards the North, or towards the South in the Eccliptical Line.

In this sense, the first Pole of the Sign of Aries, is that which hath its first degree in the Equator; the second is, that which stretcheth towards the North in the Eccliptick, and this last Pole is called Bastarnan, because it is Vertical to Bastarnia, as the Astrologers set down their Climates, Kingdoms, Provinces and Towns under the twelve Signs.

Fourthly, We must suppose that this word to double, may signifie three things. 1. In Sea-mens tearms; it signifieth to go beyond some place, as to double the Cape of bona Speranza, which is called in Italian, Tramontare; that is, to go beyond. 2. It signifieth to do twice the same thing, as Jacob did double his service for Rachel, &c. 3. In matter of traveling; it signifieth to go twice as far as is requisite.

To double, in this place cannot be understood in the first sense; because the constellations never stretcht out of their compasses, though the Stars of which they are compounded, have their peculiar motions.

To understand this, we must know that the Stars of the Firmament have their peculiar motions from West to East, upon the Pole of the Eccliptick, and that they go that way a matter of one Degree, in the space of about 100 years, and consequently the Stars do retrograde every year in the Eccliptick from West to East 52 Seconds. Ptolomeus holdeth this opinion, but other renowned Astrologers give them more: For my part I am of Tychobrahe’s opinion, who allowed them one Degree of retrogradation in 70 years and 7 Months, and consequently 51 Seconds every year.

According to this Doctrine the Star that is in the Horn of Aries, was observed by Tymocharis in 2d Degree; 150 years after, Hipparchus observed it in the first; 265 years after, Ptolomeus saw it in the 6 Degree; 740 years after, Albathognius observed it in the 18 Degree; 304 years after, Alphonsus King of Spain, found it in the 6 Degree; 265 years after, Copernicus did observe it to be in the 27 Degree and two Minutes; 61 years after, Tychobrahe saw it in the 27 Degree, and above 37 Minutes; so that in the space of 61 years it had gone 35 Minutes.

By this Doctrine we see that the whole constellations do not go beyond their Poles, though the Stars that Compound them change their Poles every year of 51 Seconds.

To double, then here cannot be taken in the first sense, nor in the third sense, for the first reason, it must then be in the second sense; and thus Aries doubleth his Bastarnan Pole; that is, Aries maketh twice his Pole, which answereth to Bastarnia.

If you ask how it cometh to pass that Aries doubleth this Pole, and in what place of Heaven we set this Bastarnan Pole. I answer to the first, that Aries doubleth his Pole, when one of those 13 Stars cometh to that point, which is a Northern or Western Pole to that sign in the Eccliptick. As to the second: I answer, that the place ought to be its last Degree, viz. the end of the 30 Degree.

Why? (will you say) did the Author mark that difference of the Sign of Aries, rather than that of Taurus, or of another?

I answer, that it was in favour of France; because Aries doth govern in France, and if it hath been favourable to it, when it came first to the Bastarnan Pole, it will be so too when it doubleth the same Pole, seeing that it will have the same position and Aspect. Now we see, that in the space of these 100 years, France was not overcome, much less shall it be hereafter, seeing that the Stars do promise its exaltation for a long continuance.

If I were a great Astrologer, I should observe exactly by this, that within the space of 290 years, Aries shall double his Cape Bastarnan, and consequently Aries should come to that Pole just in the year 1845. which is according to that we have said.

LVIII.

ANNOT.

This is plain.

LIX.

ANNOT.

The two first Verses are plain, I acknowledge my Ignorance in the last two.

LX.

ANNOT.

Mysia, Lydia, and Pamphilia, are Countreys of Asia.

LXI.

ANNOT.

It is an Army of Christians (be like Armenians) that shall rise in Mesopotamia against whom shall an Army of Turkish Horseman come, who did live by the next River.

LXII.

ANNOT.

The Cyrenian Sea, is that Sea which is by the Province of Cyrene. The Pyrenean Mountains part Spain from France. Carcassonne is a Town in France near unto Spain. The rest passeth my understanding.

LXIII.

ANNOT.

The first Verse signifieth, that the Pope’s Authority shall be put down.

The second, that his great neighbour, that is the Empire shall follow his steps, that is, be put down too. The two last Verses are plain.

LXIV.