Books and Manuscripts

Nostradamus, Michael
The 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
London: Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe, and Nathaniel Thompson, 1672. First edition in English. Folio. (xxxvi), 522 (2, blank) pp.; a2 mounted to title-page. Translated by Theophilus de Garencières. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Nostradamus and woodcut initials and head-pieces. Full contemporary brown calf over beveled edge boards, later red leather spine label, stamped in gilt, rebacked, boards and extremities rubbed and worn, losses along spine; endpapers renewed; gutter split at title-page; frontispiece mounted, soiled, and worn; title-page soiled and worn along edges; dampstaining at center of some leaves at front; losses at center and in gutter of d2 and d3, affecting text; small loss in bottom edge of d4; small burn holes, F1 and Tt2; small loss in top corner V4; scattered foxing and soiling to text; scattered edge-wear; scattered 20th century marginalia in pencil. 

The first appearance in English of Nostradamus's infamous prophecies, translated by French apothecary Theophilus de Garencières, and bound in contemporary calf. 

Nostradamus's prognostications first appeared in print in 1555, and dealt with plagues, natural disasters, and wars, which have since come to be read by some as predicting everything from the French Revolution to the September 11 terrorist attacks. This bilingual edition prints side by side the first English translation along with the original French quatrains. A past reader has annotated this copy notating passages that, to them, allude to the rise of Napoleon and the French Revolution, among other events.