ENGLISH RECORD 04
The Prophecies of Nostradamus
Les Prophéties · 1555 onwardSixteenth-century FranceFrance · EuropeAstrology · war · political change
01 · WHAT IT IS
Overview
Hundreds of cryptic French quatrains associated with Michel de Nostredame. Their mixed language, loose chronology and dense imagery have allowed repeated connections to later disasters and rulers.
02 · ORIGINAL TEXT AND EARLIEST SOURCE
What can be traced?
03 · HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The world behind the text
NOSTRADAMUS SPECIAL ARCHIVE · 1503–1566
Check the printed sentence before the prophetic reputation
Michel de Nostredame moved through medicine, pharmacy and astrological almanacs before publishing Les Prophéties from 1555. A sound archive separates four layers: the sixteenth-century quatrain, later translation, post-event identification and wholly modern fabrication.
- Name
- Michel de Nostredame
- Life
- 1503–1566 · Provence, France
- Main forms
- Quatrains arranged in Centuries and annual almanacs
- Archive rule
- Record Century, number, early spelling and edition date together
- 01Born at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Born into a family whose preceding generations had converted from Judaism to Catholicism.
- 02Medical and apothecary work
Later plague legends must be distinguished from records that can be documented.
- 03Annual almanacs
Astrological almanacs helped establish his public name.
- 04First Prophecies edition
The first 353 quatrains were printed at Lyon.
- 05Death
Posthumous editions and interpretations continued to expand the corpus.
EDITION CHAIN
Even an ‘original Nostradamus text’ needs an edition label
First edition
353 quatrainsEarliest baseline for pre-event wording.
Expanded issues
Additional CenturiesSurviving issues differ in setting, spelling and contents.
Posthumous edition
Usually 942 quatrainsPosthumous publication and arrangement require separate notice.
Translations and annual lists
Many transformationsDo not mistake an editor's additions or a headline year for the source text.
READING PROTOCOL
Six checks for one quatrain
- 01EditionWas it printed before the event?
- 02OriginalAre spelling and punctuation preserved?
- 03Literal versionWere modern names inserted by the translator?
- 04First readingWas the same target named before the event?
- 05Full comparisonAre contradictions counted alongside similarities?
- 06FalsificationCan an expired deadline remain a failure?
SIXTEEN CASE FILES · FULL ARCHIVE
Keep authentic verses and fabricated quotations visibly separate
Every case exposes source status, public claim, overlap, limit and provisional verdict.01Henry II's deathCentury I.35Retrospective interpretation48/100
The young lion will overcome the old… through a golden cage he will pierce his eyes…
A young lion defeats an older one; eyes are pierced through a golden cage, followed by cruel death.
- Popular claim
- Linked to Henry II's fatal 1559 tournament injury.
- What overlaps
- Single combat, an eye injury and cruel death overlap.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No Henry, Montgomery, France, tournament or 1559; no secure pre-event identification has been located.
02Great Fire of LondonCentury II.51Partial correspondence55/100
The blood of the just shall fail at London, / Burned by thunderbolts of twenty-three the six…
London, burning, ‘twenty-three the six,’ an ancient lady falling.
- Popular claim
- Reads Londres and 20×3+6 as London in 1666.
- What overlaps
- The city is explicit and the number can be made into 66.
- Limits and counterarguments
- The full year is absent, lightning did not start the fire and other lines remain unclear.
03French Revolution and VarennesCenturies I.14 & IX.20Suggestive partial match58/100
Songs and demands of an enslaved people… / The black monk in grey inside Varennes…
Two separate verses evoke popular demands, captivity, night travel and Varennes.
- Popular claim
- Joined to the Revolution and the royal family's 1791 flight and arrest.
- What overlaps
- Varennes is explicit; night movement and popular demands are suggestive.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No king, 1791, flight or arrest; two poems must be combined and contemporary geographical borrowing has been proposed.
04Rise of NapoleonCentury VIII.1Letter rearrangement35/100
Pau, Nay, Loron plus feu qu'à sang sera…
Pau, Nay and Loron are followed by more southern French place-names.
- Popular claim
- Rearranges the letters into something like ‘Napaulon Roy.’
- What overlaps
- A Napoleon-like string can be produced.
- Limits and counterarguments
- Pau, Nay and Oloron are real places; no Napoleon, Corsica, emperor or year appears.
05Hitler and HisterCentury II.24Likely geographical misreading22/100
Most of the army shall be against Hister… when the German child observes…
An army, Hister, an iron cage and a German child.
- Popular claim
- Treats Hister as a near-spelling of Hitler.
- What overlaps
- Army, river and German imagery evoke twentieth-century Europe.
- Limits and counterarguments
- Hister/Ister was an old name for the lower Danube; the text does not say Hitler.
069/11 attacksNo authentic quatrainFabricated quotation5/100
Online variants mention a ‘city of God,’ two brothers and metal birds.
The wording appeared with Nostradamus's name after the attacks.
- Popular claim
- Claimed as a precise forecast of aircraft and the Twin Towers.
- What overlaps
- Later wording appears to describe the event closely.
- Limits and counterarguments
- It is absent from early editions and expanded after the event; some versions misdate the author to 1654.
07COVID-19No authentic quatrainUnsourced fabrication3/100
A ‘twin year,’ eastern queen and night-borne plague in a text circulating in 2020.
The circulating passage is not found in the traceable quatrain corpus.
- Popular claim
- Presented as a precise sixteenth-century forecast of Wuhan, COVID and 2020.
- What overlaps
- Real works contain broad plague imagery.
- Limits and counterarguments
- COVID, coronavirus, Wuhan and 2020 are absent; the specific wording appeared after the outbreak.
08Louis PasteurCentury I.25Name match with ambiguity62/100
Perdu, trouvé… Sera Pasteur demy-Dieu honoré…
Something long hidden is found and Pasteur is honored almost as a demigod.
- Popular claim
- Linked to scientist Louis Pasteur.
- What overlaps
- Pasteur appears in the text.
- Limits and counterarguments
- The French word can also mean shepherd or pastor and the research is not specified.
09Hiroshima and NagasakiCentury II.6Two-city hindsight reading31/100
Near the gates and within two cities / There shall be two scourges never seen…
Two cities suffer unprecedented scourges.
- Popular claim
- Linked to the two atomic bombings.
- What overlaps
- Two cities and unprecedented disasters overlap.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No Japan, atom, radiation or 1945; famine and pestilence feature in the verse.
10Kennedy assassinationCentury I.26Assassination hindsight reading28/100
The great man by lightning falls in daylight…
A great figure falls by day and another by night.
- Popular claim
- Applied to John and Robert Kennedy.
- What overlaps
- Sudden deaths of prominent figures overlap.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No America, president, gunshot, Dallas, Kennedy or 1963.
11Apollo 11 Moon landingCentury IX.65Luna hindsight reading19/100
Within the corner of Luna he will come to surrender… placed in a strange land…
Luna and a strange land are central images.
- Popular claim
- Reads Luna as a prediction of the Moon landing.
- What overlaps
- The wording evokes lunar travel.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No spacecraft, landing, United States, Apollo or 1969; the verse speaks of capture.
12Challenger disasterCentury I.81Number and letter mismatch12/100
Nine from the human flock shall be set apart… Kappa, Theta, Lambda…
Nine people and Greek letters are mentioned.
- Popular claim
- Recombines letters into a reference to Thiokol.
- What overlaps
- Separation, departure and death can evoke the disaster.
- Limits and counterarguments
- Challenger carried seven, not nine; the letter selection is retrospective.
13Death of DianaNo agreed single verseComposite quotation6/100
No canonical quatrain contains Diana, Dodi, Paris, tunnel and 1997 together.
Separate royal-death lines were combined after the crash.
- Popular claim
- Claimed as a forecast of the Paris car crash.
- What overlaps
- A general image of royal tragedy.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No frozen pre-event text and interpretation has been established.
14The King of TerrorCentury X.72Expired deadline10/100
In the year 1999, seventh month, / From the sky shall come a great King of Terror…
An unusually explicit year and month precede an alarming figure from the sky.
- Popular claim
- Read as apocalypse, world war or celestial disaster in July 1999.
- What overlaps
- The date is genuinely specific.
- Limits and counterarguments
- No agreed global event fulfilled the complete wording in that period.
15Mabus and a third AntichristCentury II.62Unknown target14/100
Mabus then soon shall die… a horrible defeat of people and animals…
Mabus dies before blood, thirst, famine and a comet.
- Popular claim
- Mabus is repeatedly decoded as a contemporary political figure.
- What overlaps
- The unusual name appears in the verse.
- Limits and counterarguments
- The verse does not call Mabus the Antichrist and gives no country, target or date; candidates keep changing.
16War, celestial and climate disastersMultiple quatrainsNot testable as grouped8/100
A bundle of verses about war, comets, flood, drought and fire.
Most do not fix date, place and scale together.
- Popular claim
- Remapped yearly onto war, asteroid and climate headlines.
- What overlaps
- Such themes genuinely recur in the corpus.
- Limits and counterarguments
- Undated disaster language can fit almost any era.
SALGIL VERDICT · OVERALL
The source corpus is strong; specificity in famous hit lists is low.
Nostradamus's sixteenth-century printed works are legitimate historical sources. Their age does not validate each modern identification. SALGIL judges a quatrain and its interpretation history, not the person, and preserves failed deadlines, mismatches and fabricated quotations.SOURCE REGISTER
Text, event and verification sources
Editorial review · 6 September 2026
A posthumous portrait printed a century after Nostradamus's death. It is useful iconography, but not a life photograph or contemporary likeness.
Unknown artist · public domain · Wikimedia Commons ↗05 · DOCUMENT TIMELINE
When the record changed
- First editionThe first 353 quatrains are printed in Lyon.
- Expanded editionAdditional Centuries appear, with surviving copies and bibliographic disputes.
- Posthumous complete editionThe familiar larger corpus is published after Nostradamus's death.
- Viral fabricationsNew verses falsely attributed to Nostradamus spread after major crises.
06 · EDITION AND WITNESS COMPARISON
Edition history changes the claim
The date of a document and the date of an interpretation are recorded separately.| Witness or edition | Date | Editorial status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1555 first edition | 353 quatrains | Pre-event source | Best starting point for early claims; spelling and punctuation vary by copy. |
| 1557 expanded editions | Additional quatrains | Bibliographic dispute | Different surviving issues require exact identification. |
| 1568 posthumous edition | Larger 942-quatrain corpus | Later witness | Authenticity and arrangement of additions must be checked separately. |
07 · MAJOR CLAIMS
Representative claims and their limits
Henry II's death
A 'young lion' overcoming an older one is linked to the king's fatal tournament injury.
Hister and Hitler
The word Hister is treated as a misspelling of Hitler.
1999 and the king of terror
Century X.72 names the seventh month of 1999 and a great king of terror.
08 · WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
Comparison with events
A small set of quatrains show suggestive similarities to later events, but matches usually require translation choices, reordered details or omitted contradictions. Fabricated lines circulated after 9/11 and COVID-19 demonstrate how easily the authority of the name can be borrowed.09 · DISPUTES AND COUNTERARGUMENTS
Where interpretation changes
Researchers dispute the role of astrology, historical source borrowing and intentional obscurity. Translation is especially consequential because names, grammar and archaic geography can become modern people or places.10 · EVIDENCE SCORE & PROVISIONAL CONCLUSION
Interpretive dispute
Nostradamus left genuine pre-event texts, but most celebrated hits are non-unique or retrospective. Every claim should show the original French, edition and interpretation history.11 · SOURCES AND REVIEW