Nostradamus: France's Prophet of doom - The Good Life France

"The world's most famous prophet, Michel de Nostredame was born in St-Rémy-de-Provence in 1503, to a wealthy grain dealer whose Jewish father had converted to Catholicism to avoid the Inquisition and took the name Nostredame. Little Michel was a bright spark and learned the basics of a humanist education in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and math from his maternal grandfather, but his college education in Avignon was cut short when an outbreak of plague closed the school. It sparked a lifelong interest in healing and medicinal herbs."

"After attending medical school in Montpellier, he made a name for himself as a travelling apothecary treating plague victims. An offhand remark about statues briefly brought him some unwanted attention from the Church; as a descendent of converted Jews, he would always have to be very careful. He married a woman in Agen and had two children, all of whom died of plague. His inability to treat them may have shaped his bleak worldview."

"He wandered around the south of France and Italy until 1547 when he married wealthy widow Anne Ponsard in Salon-de-Provence, and fathered six children, practiced medicine and invented new recipes for herbal cures, cosmetics and hair dyes. Like many Renaissance humanists, his interests were wide ranging. He later helped finance his friend Adam de Craponne's innovative canal that brought water from the Durance to Salon and irrigated the Plaine de la Crau."

Michel de Nostredame was born in 1503 in St-Rémy-de-Provence to a family with a converted Jewish grandfather. He received a humanist education in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and mathematics before plague closed his college, sparking an interest in healing and medicinal herbs. He studied medicine in Montpellier and worked as a travelling apothecary treating plague victims. He suffered the deaths of his first wife and two children to plague. He later married Anne Ponsard, fathered six children, practiced medicine, invented herbal remedies and cosmetics, and helped finance an irrigation canal. He published almanacs and the 1555 Les Prophéties comprising 942 ambiguous quatrains.

Read at The Good Life France