ATWOOD, William.

£3,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Wonderful Predictions of Nostredamus, Grebner, David Pareus and Antonius Torquatus. First edition of one of the author's less conventional political pieces, which celebrates the Glorious Revolution as the fulfilment of various astrological prophecies. Atwood had published several Whig pamphlets by 1683 but ceased following the retributions for the Rye House Plot. Wonderful Predictions was his first publication in several years and his only work ever to engage with the occult.Atwood presents his version of the prophecies of Nostramadus, Grebner, Torquatus, and Pareus in verse English, side-by-side with the original languages. Only Nostramadus's original text is in verse; those by Grebner and Torquatus are in prose Latin, and Pareus's is in prose English. In his introduction, Atwood admits that "Many, I know, despise Prophecies" but stipulates that "Nostredamus, either thro' judicial astrology, or divine inspiration... did foretell many things which have come to pass" (p. [5]). Along with the Glorious Revolution, he notes that Nostradamus predicted the execution of Charles I and the 1666 Great Fire of London. Of the other astrologers, he asserts that Grebner "had a foreknowledge of the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell" (p. [9]); Pareus predicted the appearance of William or Orange; and Torquatus, writing 200 years prior, was able to accurately foretell "the present juncture of affairs" in Europe (p. [9]). However, he is frank about having adapted the texts to suit his interpret

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