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by John Hogue, © ELEMENT BOOKS, Hardcover, 488 pages
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Nostradamus:
A Life and Myth
Every age has seen itself reflected in different interpretations of Nostradamus's prophecies. By the twentieth century, he was used as a propaganda weapon by both sides in two world wars, and as the twenty-first century loomed, he became a lightning rod for millennial anxieties and hopes.
BUT WHO WAS THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH?
Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nostradamus, John Hogue traces the life and legacy of the French prophet in fascinating and insightful detail, revealing much little-known and original material never before published in English. Nostradamus: A Life and Myth is the first full-bodied biography of one of the most famous and controversial historical figures of the last millennium.
Nostradamus Biographical information
NOSTRADAMUS (1503–1566), – his enigmatic prophetic
masterpiece, Les Propheties, has made
him the most famous and controversial
prophet of the last four and a half centuries.
He was born to recently
"Christianized" Jews in the town of St.
Remy, Provence. His father, Jacques, was
a prosperous notary.
His grandfathers first encouraged his
mysterious talent for prophecy, both
learned men of the Renaissance and former
personal physicians to the freest
thinking king of the time, Rene the Good
of Provence, and his son, the Duke of
Calabria. Their pupil showed excellent aptitude for math and the
science of astrology.
His paternal grandfather deemed him
ready at fourteen to study liberal arts at
Avignon, the papal enclave of Provence.
There he angered his teachers by
openly defending astrology and
Copernicus. Nostradamus was then sent to
study medicine in the University of
Montpellier. He easily got through his
baccalaureate examinations in 1525.
Once he had a license to practice
medicine, he dropped out of
Montpellier to practice in the countryside
throughout southern France,
where he could freely put his medical
theories to the test.
Sixteenth-century France suffered
from seasonal bouts of "La
Charbon," the Black Death.
Nostradamus followed the plague's
shadow, never leaving a town until the
danger had passed. He honed his
skills and availed himself of the knowledge
and teachers of the Counter–
Reformation's mystical underground
of alchemists, Jewish Cabalists, and
pagans. By 1529 he returned to
Montpellier where he received his doctorate
degree. He remained a professor
of medicine there for the following
three years until he left to set up a
practice in Toulouse.
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