True Prophecies or Prognostications of Michael Nostradamus: 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 and Commented by Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick Colleg. Lond.

London: Thomas Radcliffe and Nathaniel Thompson, 1672. First English edition of Nostradamus' famous prognostications. Small folio in fours (11 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches; 299 x 191 mm). [36], 522, [2, blank] pp. With scarce engraved frontispiece portrait by Dolle, often not present. Decorated woodcut initials and headpieces. Title page printed in red and black.

Contemporary mottled calf, neatly rebacked, retaining original red morocco lettering label. Board edges tooled in gilt. Marbled edges. With two previous owner's bookplates on front pastedown, including an eighteenth-century armorial bookplate of Sir George Cooke of Westminster. Pages with some occasional foxing and toning. A few tiny burn holes, only slightly affecting text on leaf F4. Otherwise a very good copy of this controversial work.

Nostradamus's famous prophecies were first published in Lyons in 1555. Nostradamus (Michel de Notredame) was for years a wandering physician, until 1547 when he married a wealthy widow. His major energies, though, were directed towards the pursuit of knowledge from the ancient Hebrew prophets, to whose religion his ancestors had adhered until his grandfather converted to Catholicism. In 1555 he claimed divine inspiration for his astrological forecasts and his first book of prophecies was printed in Lyon. This work garnered him instant success and by the end of the year he was summoned to the French court to cast the horoscopes of the royal children. "Although he earned both admiration and enmity already in his own time, the controversy over the credibility of his vague prognostications endures" (Kenney).

Caillet III, 8073. Kenney, Catalogue of the Rare Astronomical Books in the San Diego State University Library, 134. Wing N1399.

HBS 68228.

$14,500.