Nostradamus
Nostradamus · Historical & Religious Figures
Provençal apothecary, plague physician and author of Les Prophéties (1555), among the most continuously published books in history; grandson of an Avignon Jew converted in 1459-60.
14 ou 21 décembre 1503, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France — 1er ou 2 juillet 1566, Salon-de-Provence, France
Provence
Nostradamus is recognized among Jewish contributors to Historical & Religious Figures — Provençal apothecary, plague physician and author of Les Prophéties (1555), among the most continuously published books in history; grandson of an Avignon Jew converted in 1459-60.
The grandfather of Avignon, said plainly
The family of his father Jaume had originally been Jewish: his paternal grandfather Cresquas, a grain and money dealer based in Avignon, converted to Catholicism around 1459–60, taking the Christian name Pierre and the surname Nostredame. Michel was born on 14 or 21 December 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, forty-odd years after the conversion, and was baptized and lived a Catholic; this directory admits him by the ascendance route — one grandparent born a Jew — and says so plainly, as its rule requires.
The plague doctor
An apothecary before he was a physician, he treated outbreaks of plague in Marseille, Salon-de-Provence and Aix-en-Provence. His first wife died in 1534 with their two children; in 1547 he married Anne Ponsarde in Salon, and they had six children.
Les Prophéties
In 1555 he published Les Prophéties, 353 rhymed quatrains; the posthumous omnibus of 1568 carried 942, gathered in ten 'Centuries'. The book has rarely been out of print in four and a half centuries and made its author the most famous name in prophecy — a fortune this card records as a fact of publishing history, without endorsing the prophecies themselves.
The court of France
Catherine de' Medici, queen consort and then queen mother of France, became his greatest admirer, and by the end of his life he was Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to the young King Charles IX. He died at Salon-de-Provence on 1 or 2 July 1566, at sixty-two.
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Source: Wikipedia
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Provençal apothecary, plague physician and author of Les Prophéties (1555), among the most continuously published books in history; grandson of an Avignon Jew converted in 1459-60.
Source: Wikipedia
