NOSTRADAMUS, Michael (1503-1566). The True Prophecies or Prognostications of…, Physician to Henry II. Francis II. and Charles IX. Kings of France, and one of the best Astronomers that ever were. A work full of curiosity and learning. Translated into English with comments by Theophilus de Garencieres. London: Thomas Ratcliffe and Nathaniel Thompson for John Martin et al, 1672.
Chancery folio (292 x 189 mm). Engraved frontispiece, title printed in red and black, dedication leaf to Nathaniel Parker following title, numerous woodcut capitals and head-pieces (frontispiece laid down with some repairs near gutter). (Some minor spotting throughout). Later half morocco, marbled sides, edges gilt (some staining near spine).
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Nostradamus “began his prophetic writings in the early 1540s with a series of short yearly almanacs in which he made predictions in verse. The new art of printing gratified a popular demand for supernaturally acquired 'certainty,' and such almanacs were a common literary production of the day. It was with Les Prophéties (1555), however, that Nostradamus became an author of contemporary reputation and a figure who has had an impact on later history… [His more than 1000 rhyming quatrains, arranged in ‘centuries’ of 100] constitute the largest body of prophetic verse prepared to that day, perhaps in all literature” (Clute & Grant 694). Theophilus de Garencières, a French apothecary and occultist living in England, provided the first English translation of the famous prophecies of Nostradamus, along with explanations for each. A HANDSOME COPY. ESTC R13646; Wing N-1399.