Chapter I: Front Matter

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._

_LONDON_,

Printed by _Thomas Ratcliffe_, and _Nathaniel Thompson_,
and are to be sold by _John Martin_, at the _Bell_ in St.
_Pauls Church-yard_, _Henry Mortlack_ at the _White Hart_ in
_Westminster-Hall_, _Thomas Collins_, at the _Middle-Temple
Gate_, _Edward Thomas_, at the _Adam_ and _Eve_ in _Little
Britain_, _Samuel Lowndes_ over against _Exeter-house_
in the _Strand_, _Rob. Bolter_, against the South door
of the _Exchange_, _Jon. Edwin_, at the _Three Roses_ in
_Ludgate-street_, _Moses Pits_ at the _White Hart_ in _Little
Britain_, 1672.

To his most Honoured Friend
NATHANIEL PARKER
OF
Grayes-Inne, Esq;
_THEOPHILUS de GARENCIERES_,
D. Med. Colleg. _Lond._
Humbly Dedicateth this Book.

_Namque erit ille mihi_, &c. Virg. Eccl. I.

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._

IN

Explicatum à doctissimo sagacissimoq; Viro Domino

De

GARENCIERES

FAMOSI

Nostradami Vaticinium.

_Abdita qui medici legit præsagia Vatis,_
_Non valet hoc quisquam pandere carmen, ait._
_Falleris, en Medicus merito quoque nomine Vates,_
_Invia luminibus permeat antra novis._
_Sed minus ingenio tantum mirere laborem_
_Id succisivo tempore fecit opus._

Petrus Cottereau.

Aliud.

_Præteritos in vate tuo cognoscere casus_
_Vix licet; ast etiam nota futura tibi._
_Si potes è mediis lucem proferre tenebris;_
_Ipsa metallorum semina te-ne latent?_
_Nulla tuum fugiunt naturæ arcana cerebrum,_
_Per quem ~Nostradami~ Pythica verba patent._

Idem.

Perenni Famæ Doctissimi Viri _Theophili de Garencieres_ Doctoris Medici Colleg. _Lond._ de Interpretatione _NOSTRADAMI_ Fatidici Tetrastichon hoc dicavit.

Dudleyus, _dimidia pars ipsius animæ_.

_Qvæ primus fecit, facit illa secundus ~Apollo~,_
_Conjungens medicis oracula sacra triumphis._
_Quis major, rogitas? facile est discernere noris_
_Si Latonigenæ cessare oracula ~Phœbi~._

_By the same, To the Author of this, and a more Excellent Work._

Mystically.

The God of Arts that gives thee Light, as clear
As his, that thou might’st be his Agent here
In all his Secrets; courts thee to go on,
Till thou hast made thy self another Sun.

_Æternum vivant si vera Oracula Phœbi_
_~Nostradami~ vivent; & Patris illa mei;_

Petrus.

THE