Nostradamus, the assumed name of Michel de Notre dame, an astrologer of Jewish descent, who was born at St Remi in Provence, 14th December 1503. He studied at Avignon, and next medicine at Montpellier, took the degree of doctor of medicine in 1529, and practised the profession at Agen, afterwards at Salon near Aix. Next year when the plague was raging at Lyons he was conspicuous for his skill and devotion. He first fell upon his prophetic vein about the year 1547, but in what light he himself regarded his pretensions it is now impossible to say. The first collection of famous Centuries appeared at Lyons in 1555. These were predictions in rhymed quatrains, divided into centuries, of which there were seven; the second edition, published in 1558, contained ten. Astrology was then the fashion, and these quatrains, expressed generally in obscure and enigmatical terms, brought their author a great reputation. Catharine de' Medici invited him to visit her at Blois; the Duke and Duchess of Savoy went to Salon expressly to see him; Charles IX. on his accession appointed him his physician-in-ordinary. Nostradamus died at Salon, 2d July 1566. His predictions have given rise to a vast illustrative or controversial literature. The Centuries were formally condemned by the papal court in 1781.
See Jaubert's Vie de M. Nostradamus (Amst. 1656); Haitze's Vie de Nostradamus (Aix, 1712); Astruc's Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Montpellier (1767); Apologie pour les Grands Hommes Soupçonnés de Magie (Paris, 1825); E. Bareste's Nostradamus (1842); and Charles A. Ward's Oracles of Nostradamus (1891).