This article is about Nostradamus' so-called 'extra' quatrains,
i.e., quatrains published after his death. It does not refer to
quatrains first found in handwritten form and later published.
*
Nostradamus' quatrains are generally found in two main groups of
books, the Prophéties and the Almanachs. Except for the fact
that, in the 17th century, most quatrains found in the Almanachs
have been given the name "Présages" and were assigned a number,
nothing authorizes any distinction between a quatrain from the
Prophéties and one from the Almanachs. They all form part of
Nostradamus' prophetic work.
*
The extra quatrains, however, are very special. We do not know
why Nostradamus did not publish them himself. Neither do we know
why they were assigned a particular spot in the numbering of the
Centuries, even though they never were part of them during
Nostradamus' life.
*
All of which makes them suspicious. Some authors automatically
call them forgeries. Others use the expression 'left-overs' from
Nostradamus' main work.
*
THE REAL VI-100
*
Nostradamus NEVER published a quatrain which bears the number 100
in his Centurie VI. Jean-Aimé de Chavigny was the one to have
first published it in 1594 in his "Janus François". Here is what
he wrote at p. 218:
*
C E N T.__6.___Q V A T.__I O O.
Fille de l'Aure, asyle du mal sain,
Ou iusqu'au ciel se void l'amphiteatre,
Progige veu, ton mal est fort prochain,
Seras captiue, & des fois plus de quatre.
*
To assign that number to this quatrain, Chavigny had to have
understood that Nostradamus had left that 'slot' open in his main
work. One can even say that, by assigning that number to this
quatrain, Chavigny was pointing to the fact that there is no such
quatrain so numbered in Nostradamus' main work, as no less than
three separate editions end Centurie VI with quatrain 99.
*
CHAVIGNY'S CENTURIE XI AND CENTURIE XII
*
The next batch of extra quatrains also come from the very same
1594 book by Chavigny. Problem: he gave them a Centurie number
which 'does not fit'. As if he wanted his readers to believe that
Nostradamus wrote two more Centuries, of which only 13 quatrains
survived. (Have you noticed that '13'?)
*
Nobody noticed that there were 13 in that batch, because Chavigny
gave them silly numbers. But *there are* 13. Just as there are 13
quatrains in each of Nostradamus' Almanachs, most of the time.
Let's pretend that they come from an Almanach which Nostradamus
decided not to write. Chavigny gave them the following numbers:
*
XI-91, XI-97, XII-4, XII-24, XII-36, XII-52, XII-55, XII-56, XII-
59, XII-62, XII-65, XII-69 and XII-71.
*
As they are well-known, I have not re-posted them here. From this
batch, only XII-4 is a little more famous, because it is also
part of another batch of hitherto unpublisheed quatrains found in
manuscript form, AND because it starts with 13 consecutive words
all starting with an "f". Again, the number 13.
*
THE 'PHONEY' PRÉSAGE #2
*
When identifying an original source for the so-called "Présages",
bibliographers realized that the one bearing the number 2 did not
correspond to any quatrain found in the Almanachs. Again, some
automatically decided that it was a forgery. Not necessarily so.
Who first published it? Our friend Chavigny, again. Here is how
he printed it at p. 42:
*
DE L'EPIST. LIMINAIRE SVR L'AN I555.
La mer Tyrrhene, l'Ocean par la garde
Du grand Neptun & ses tridens soldats,
Prouence seure par la main du grand Tende,
Plus Mars Narbon l'heroiq de Vilars.
*
Have you noticed? It doesn't even rhyme!
*
THE 1627 EDITION
*
Finally, we come to two more quatrains which were assigned a
specific slot in the main work of Nostradamus but, only a very
long time after his death. They are found in the 1627 edition
published by Jean Didier, in Lyon.
*
Their main purpose appears to have been to shoot a big hole in
the theory (false, in my view) that Nostradamus left us a
Centurie VII with only 42 quatrains *because* he had authored 58
sixains, not quatrains, just to make a round number of 100.
*
Problem, the sixains were not... quatrains. And the forger who
had penned them apparently had a bigger lot of 132 of them, only
58 having been selected by the 17th century printer who first
published them to make them 'fit' Centurie VII's 42 quatrains.
*
So the two Didier quatrains were made to fit Centurie VII, of
course. They were numbered VII-43 and VII-44.
*
X L I I I.
Lors qu'on verra les deux licornes,
L'vne baissant, l'autre baissant,
Monde au milieu, plier aux bornes
S'enfuira le neueu riant.
X L I I I I.
Alors qu'vn Bour fort bon
Portant en soy les marques de iustice,
De son sang lors pourtant son nom
Par fuite iniuste receura son supplice.
*
In this case, they rhyme but... the metric is wrong! Do they look
suspicious? Of course they do. But are they prophetic? The last
one most certainly is. It speaks of a Bourbon (vn Bour fort bon),
of his blood, of his flight, of his ordeal. It speaks of the 1793
execution of Louis XVI... in 1627!
*
Which is why one can say that a quatrain published long after
Nostradamus' death is not automatically a forgery. After all, the
so-called Malachy prophecy was first published in 1595, also
after Nostradamus' death, which does not prevent it from having
been authored by the very same Nostradamus. All of which points
to a secret society still watching over Nostradamus' prophecy
long after the death of their Grand Master... Michel.
*
Happy 500th, Nosty!
*
------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Claude Latrémouille % -- "Claude! There ain't no stinkin' -- %
Le 8 novembre 2003- % cryptic anagrams in them dang verses,- %
APNCL#1388 -------- % ya hear?!" (A chorus of a.p.n. voices) %
------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
*
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=== CLAUDE LATRÉMOUILLE ===
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