DNF @ 14% - no rating (on Goodreads)

This book sadly, was not for me. It wasn't what I was expecting and as a beginner in the world of Nostradamus, most of what I read went over my head.

I think this could be a wonderful book for those who are already well acquainted with Nostradamus, but that is not me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the free digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Very detailed, but I found it hard to read. It goes into depth about a lot of the prophecies and it would have been more effective for me if the chapters were shorter and information streamlined.

It will make a really great resource for those studying Nostradamus but not great for a pleasure read.

Now a Bad Plagiarized Translation Was Turned into Nostradamus’ Prophecies

This is an updated modern edition.
Nostradamus popularized the prophesizing guru, a sect that makes billions in our modern world by selling all sorts of fictitious ideas as if they are truths that are of beneficial use. Anybody who reads the original text Nostradamus created would not be impressed, as it would just read as theological propaganda that repeats standard ideas that were common at that time but are not as unappealing as most other antique ideas. Boswell profited from Nostradamus’ existing fame by spinning his own fiction that claimed to find patterns and true predictions among the original nonsense. And this is a puffery of Boswell’s fiction that attempts to profit from new readers who can still buy into this hype.
The first chapter explains that “Michel de Notredame… was born at Saint-Remy, in Provence, France, in 1503, of Jewish ancestry, but Catholic parentage.” In other words, Jews were outlawed in Europe starting in 1492 or so (when Spain outlawed them), so during this period Jews who remained in Europe were forced to convert to Catholicism, even if they secretly retained their Jewish heritage. Nostradamus became a medical professor and practiced medicine during the pestilence of 1524-9. The main book credited as being prophetic is structured as if it was blatantly intended to be a fictional poem called Centuries, the first section of which was published in Lyons in 1555. One of the only mentioned documented prophesies that he made was to Queen Catherine de Medici’s sons, for whom he made horoscopes, before he died in 1566. The poetry collection began to gain fame when it was condemned by Pope Pius VI in 1781, who imagined that this poem was prophetic. One of the reasons these poems are especially difficult to understand so that some have begun to see prophesies in them is because they are written in “crabbed French,” as well as “in the Provencal dialect, all reading as if they had been translated from earlier Latin versions”. In other words, this collection was probably plagiarized from an older Latin poetry collection by a very bad translator, who was so bad that it is not easy to figure out what the original source is supposed to have been. When this author is describing “stanzas” as “the most lucid”, giving the example of the “beheading of Britain’s King Charles I”, the actual “lucid” passages are not given (because there are no lucid predictions in the original; for example, there are no names of “Charles I” or any of the other details assigned to them by later puffers). Here is an example of one of the only quotes from the original book in these pages (remember this is a polished translation, whereas the original is in broken French): “From Lake Geneva sermons will bore, first by day, then brought to weeks, then months, then years; then they all will fail.” The following interpretation from a “commentator” argues that this passage is referring to 3 antipopes during the WWII period. This is obviously nonsensical and unrelated. The original translator might have just misunderstood the specific timing in Latin, so he might have just digressed into referring to random spans of time.
Those who are intent on referring to Nostradamus and his “prophesies” in casual conversations should at least read this book or others like it. Though it would be best to just read the best available translation of Centuries with minimum commentary in the margins to see for yourself if you would interpret any of these poems as prophetic without overlaid suggestions. It is important for scholars to reflect on the history of notorious personages such as Nostradamus, so this is a productive investment of scholarly effort.

I couldn't really say much on this book because it's kind of a obvious book if you know Nostradomis. But it is a good read. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy.