Having seen the "speculation" Mr Nostradamus wrote his verses in Latin.
Mr Leoni has a take on it:
The result of this labor so far would be brief notes. The next step was
to turn these notes into suitably obscured verses, in the best
tradition of oracles if not poets. There is some evidence to indicate
that the verses were turned out first in Latin and then translated,
almost verbatim, into a language basically French, but with much Latin
remaining, not to mention other admixtures. Finally, because there was
still some continuity, the verses had to be rearranged. For lack of
more exact knowledge, we may assume that each was put on a piece of
paper, which was in turn placed in a basket and mixed up with the
others. The order in which they were withdrawn was the order of the
Centuries. However, this rule, like most, has an exception: there are a
few "series" of consecutive quatrains.The source of Nostradamus'
inspiration has been a very controversial issue amongst commentators
and critics down through the ages. Many theories have come forth. At
best, there can be no final, positive proof as to what was his
inspiration. However, the theory we have presented is most in accord
with both the facts available and common sense.
In his Preface, Nostradamus states that his prophecies cover events in
Europe and parts of Asia and Africa from 1555 to 3797. However, the
occurrence of the date 1792 near the end of his prose outline in the
Epistle seems to indicate that in his own mind, he did not actually
even think he saw beyond the 20th century. There remains, of course,
the possibility that 3797 is not A.D. 3797 but 3,797 years after some
other event.' This, may however, seems rather farfetched In any event,
it has always been assumed that 3797 is Nostradamus' nomination for the
Last Year, the end of the world. Quite naturally enough, most of the
quatrains which mention place names mention French names. Nostradamus
is first, and above all, the Oracle of France. Some of the more
reasonable of the commentators have even gone, so far as to claim that
if no place name is mentioned, the scene is always France. This,
however, is a bit too much of a simplification. For instance, a 16th-
century writer, prophet or otherwise, who mentions the Empire" could
mean only the Holy Roman Empire, and not a French empire.
(What about the New Roman Empire [USA] the shortest lived Empire so
far, or the next shortest the Islamic?)
After France, the scene of most quatrains is Italy. Thereafter,
Iberia, England, the Netherlands, Central Europe, the Balkans, North
Africa and the Near East ' share more or less equally. Of Russia, the
Middle and Far East and the Americas there is next to nothing. (For
the exact breakdown, see Subject Index.)
LB
.
|
