Nostradamus: Biography and Prophetic Works (1520-1566)

• Avignon 1520: At seventeen, he graduates as "Maître des Arts" and is qualified to teach literature and philosophy.

• 1526: He leaves the University of Montpellier, returning three years later due to faculty disorders and suspended courses.

• Bordeaux 1528: In this major commercial center on the Garonne, Michel finds himself in the midst of a plague epidemic brought from Italy by Louis XII's soldiers. The young man witnesses horrifying scenes during one of the most terrible epidemics. Without being a doctor, Nostradamus successfully applies his great-grandfather's advice and remedies, living for six months in a hell where many doctors perish alongside their patients. After this frightening experience, Michel becomes convinced that his vocation is to become a physician.

• Montpellier 1529: On October 23, he enrolls at the famous University, second only to that of Paris, studying alongside Antoine Saporeta, Balthasar Noyer, François Rabelais, and others who would become famous.

• 1533-1535: Nostradamus is in Avignon, then Bordeaux and Toulouse, where, thanks to his botanical knowledge, he sells products—elixirs and cosmetics—of his own composition, whose recipes would only be published later (1555). His marriage took place in Toulouse in 1533, and two children were born. During this period, he works for Scaliger and becomes friends with a teacher from Agen, one Philibert Sazzarin, who, learning of his esoteric studies and interests, denounces him—Scaliger himself may not be uninvolved—and summons an Inquisitor from Toulouse to interrogate the new doctor. Nostradamus wisely decides to change scenery: he returns to Agen only to witness the death of his wife and children, struck down by the 1535 epidemic.

• 1535-1541: Confirmed travels to Lorraine, Alsace, Germany, and Italy.

• 1541-1546: Travels in Provence.

• 1542: His stay at the Orval monastery (Aurea Vallis) of the Cistercian Order, now in Luxembourg, near Givet and Mont-Medy, is taken for granted given his temperament and inclinations. A monastic retreat benefits body and spirit; meditation allows him to recover from the grave misfortune that befell him, and the monastery's climate and peace enable him to dedicate himself serenely to his studies. In this monastery, the Prophecy of Orval comes to light, and it is easy to identify Nostradamus as its author.

• 1545: He writes "Interpretation des Hiéroglyphes de Horapollo," 86 manuscript folios of proven authenticity that, after being in Colbert's library (Louis XIV's minister), were acquired by the Royal Library and are now in the National Library of Paris (MSF 2594)—the only entirely autograph manuscript by Nostradamus, an unpublished text published and commented by Pierre Rollet in Barcelona (1968) with 11 unpublished quatrains and a "consultation" on Constantine's treasure commented by Peiresc.

• May 1546: A commission of personalities from Aix implores him to go to that city where a black plague epidemic has broken out.

• November 1547: The marriage, registered on the 11th, is celebrated on the 26th of the same month with ceremony and reception worthy of Nostradamus's fame, who from now on lives in a four-story house in the Ferrey-Roux quarter.

• From 1547: Requests for astrological consultations and horoscopes flow to his study, including special requests that require nights of calculations and work, such as the horoscope for Salon pharmacist François Berard, on which he worked—the text was written in poetry—for nine nights from midnight to four in the morning. Obviously, horoscope fees were high.

• 1550: He begins publishing astrological Almanacs with annual predictions, written in common language, which immediately succeed in both countryside and cities. Specimens of 20-30 pages each from 1557 and 1563 are preserved at the Arbaud Library in Aix (Provence).

• April 1552: Dedicated to his brother Jean, his "Trattè des Fardements" is published with recipes for preparing cosmetic products, jams, and other curiosities.

• March 1, 1555: He concludes a long dedication "ad Caesarem Nostradamus Filium" to his firstborn son, still in swaddling clothes, which precedes the first edition of the Centuries comprising three centuries of 100 quatrains in verse and the fourth century containing only 53 quatrains, "Les Vrayes Centuries et Propheties de Maistre Michel Nostradamus" (553 prophetic quatrains): printed by Macé Bonhomme in Lyon on May 3, 1555, certainly the fruit of several years of editorial work, extrasensory perceptions, and astrological studies.

• 1555-1566: He completes his prophetic work that would give him celebrity in life and even more after death, considering the enormous number of books published about him and his famous predictions. Among Nostradamus's works should be mentioned his translation of Galen's "Trattè sur le remède contre la peste et toutes les fièvres."

• 1560: According to scholar E. De France, another meeting of Nostradamus with Catherine takes place at Chaumont-sur-Loire castle, before her son Francis II died. The magical experiment held on that occasion, also reported by Simon Boulard in his book "Trésors d'Histoires admirables et mémorables de notre temps" (1610), sees as officiants, according to some versions, the magician Henry Khunrath or Ulrich de Mayence according to others. It appears that Nostradamus performs a magical ritual using a mirror constructed with entirely particular material, called Katoptron, from which catoptrite is derived, a monoclinic mineral of black color manufactured in Nordmark, Sweden. After a magical ritual, the queen sees reflected alternately the shadows of the sons who would ascend to the throne, and that of Henry of Navarre. The mirror shows a great hall; each character performs as many turns as the years he would have reigned. According to other versions, Nostradamus used a rectangular mirror, made of slightly concave steel, with four corners.