NOSTRADAMUS, Michel.

by Michel Nostradamus

£3,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

An extremely rare, popular edition of the prophecies of Nostradamus by Pierre Rigaud, a deliberate copy of the earliest editions, printed at Lyon by the same family, here without date (some later editions by Rigaud were printed with false earlier dates). We have not been able to locate another copy of this edition; it seems closest to Chomart 201 “Michel Chomarat and Jean-Paul Laroche. Bibliographie Nostradamus; XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles. 1989”). The first part contains the authors famous dedication to his son and the second to Henry II. The work was originally published in three parts, the first containing 353 poems. A second part was printed in 1557 and added 289 further prophecies; the third and final part of 300 new poems was printed in 1558, posthumously, by Pierre Rigaud Sr. These poems or rhymed quatrains were grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called “Centuries”. In this edition there are 44 in the last section though an annotator has crossed out the final two additional centuries stating that they were not to be found in early editions. A final quire has been added containing 71 further centuries by Vincent Seve de Beaucaire, originally made in 1605 and often added. Nostradamus claimed each prediction was based upon his astrological reading of particular events, though it is evident that a great deal of the work is copied from earlier Latin authors such as Livy, Plutarch, and other classical historians, and many are taken directly from Richard Ro

• Binding: Hardcover

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