TO THE MOST INVINCIBLE, MOST PUISSANT and most Christian Henry King of France the Second, Michel Nostradamus his most humble and obedient servant and subject [bids] victory and felicity.

BY VIRTUE OF that sovereign precept which I have observed, O most Christian and victorious King, ever since my long-since obscure face did present itself before the deity of your immeasurable Majesty - since when I have been perpetually dazzled, never ceasing to honor and worthily to venerate that day when first I presented myself before it, as before a Majesty at once so unique and so human:

Now, seeking for some occasion whereby I might manifest the goodness and sincerity of my heart, so that in this way I might amply extend my gratitude towards your most serene Majesty:

Now, seeing that to declare it in terms of deeds was beyond my power - and this combined with my singular desire to be suddenly illuminated and transported from my over-long darkness and obscurity before the face of the sovereign eye and Prime Monarch of the World - in such wise I was long in doubt to whom I should dedicate these three Centuries of my remaining Prophecies that complete the thousand, and after cogitating thereon for a long time have taken the daringly audacious step of addressing your Majesty, without being daunted thereby - just as the most eminent author Plutarch recounts in his 'Life of Lycurgus' that, in view of the offerings and gifts that were presented as sacrifices to the temples of the immortal gods of that time, people did not dare to present themselves at the temples, lest they be too frequently daunted by [the sheer cost of the] the said fees and vestments.

This notwithstanding, seeing that your Royal splendour is accompanied by an incomparable humanity, I have addressed myself not as to the kings of Persia, whom it was in no wise permitted to visit, still less to approach:

But it is to a Prince most prudent and wise that I have dedicated my nocturnal and prophetic computations, [which I have] put together by natural instinct, accompanied by poetic frenzy, rather than by poetic rule; [which are] for the most part composed and harmonised with Astronomical calculations relating by the year, month and week to the regions, countries and most of the Towns and Cities of all Europe, taking in those of North Africa and part of Asia Minor, as modified in respect of those regions that come closest to all these latitudes; and which I have composed in an instinctive manner.

The snotty-nosed will retort that the scansion is as easy as understanding the meaning is difficult. And since, O most humane King, most of the prophetic quatrains are so difficult that people would not know how to approach them, still less interpret many of them, nevertheless - in the hope of setting out in writing the years, towns, cities and regions where most of them will occur, notably those of the years 1585 and 1606, starting from the present day, which is the 14th March 1557, and extending far beyond to the advent (which will be thoroughly calculated thereafter) of the beginning of the seventh millennium (in so far as my astronomical calculation and other knowledge has been able to extend thereto) when the adversaries of Jesus Christ and his Church shall begin to mutiply more vigorously - the whole has been composed and calculated in days and hours, carefully chosen and set out, and as accurately as I have been able.

And the whole of it 'Minerva libera, et non invita' (Latin ref. to Horace - 'insofar as my natural ability allows, and not otherwise'), by calculating almost as many of the events of future times as of ages past, including the present - and of whatever can be ascertained about future events in all regions as time rolls by - precisely as this has been recorded, and without adding anything superfluous, even though it is said 'Quod de futuris non est determinata omnino veritas' (Latin: 'For concerning future events the truth has not been fully determined').

It is true, Sire, that not thinking to prophesy (merely) by the natural instinct which has been bequeathed to me by my ancestors, and (so) adjusting and harmonising this natural instinct in conjunction with my lengthy calculations, and emptying my soul, spirit and heart of all care, worry and upset through mental calm and tranquillity. All of it harmonised and foretold partly 'trepode aeneo' [Latin ref. to Iamblichus - 'on the brass tripod'].

Although they be many who attribute to me that which is no more mine than that which has nothing to do with me, only God Eternal, who is the holy, just and merciful examiner of human hearts, is the true judge of it - whereupon I pray that he will defend me from the slanders of the wicked, who for equally slanderous reasons would also enquire how it was that your most ancient forebears the Kings of France cured people of the scrofula, while those of other nations cured them of snake-bites, and yet others had a certain instinct for the divining art, [to say nothing of] other examples that would be [too] long to recount here.

Notwithstanding those in whom the malignity of the evil spirit shall NOT be apprehended, over the course of time after my earthly extinction my writings shall be more so than during my lifetime. Nevertheless, if I should fall short in my calculation of the ages or if it should not be according to the will of some, may it please your more than imperial Majesty to pardon me, for I protest before God and his Saints that I do not claim to put anything whatever in writing in the present epistle that is against the true Catholic faith, but have collated the Astronomical calculations to the best of my knowledge: for the space of time since our first ancestors is such (deferring as I do to correction by the soundest judgement) that the first man, Adam, lived about 1242 years before Noah, not calculating the time by the Gentile method, as Varro wrote: but solely according to the sacred Scriptures, and according as my poor mind has been able to cope with my Astronomical calculations.

Around 1080 years after Noah, from him and the world flood, came Abraham, who was a consummate astrologer according to some, and was the first inventor of Chaldean writing: around 515 or 516 years after him came Moses, and between the time of David and Moses was about 570 years.

After that, between the time of David and the time of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ, born of the only Virgin, was (according to some chronographers) 1350 years - though it could be objected that this calculation is not accurate because it differs from that of Eusebius.

And from the time of man's redemption until the detestable blandishments of the Saracens there were 621 years or thereabouts, and therefrom one can easily add together how long has passed [overall], if my reckoning be but good and valid for all nations. And thus it is that the whole of it has been calculated according to the celestial revolutions, by association with impressions absorbed at certain desolate hours from affections [that I have] inherited from my ancient ancestors. But the violence of the times requires, O most serene King, that such secret events be expressed only in enigmatic terms, [even though] having but one sole sense and single meaning, free of ambiguous or equivocal reckoning - nay, rather under a cloudy obscurity, in the form of an instinctive inpouring akin to the utterances of the one thousand and two prophets that have been since the world began. As the reckoning and Punic Chronicle of Joel has it, 'Effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem, et prophetabunt fillii vestri, et filiae vestrae' [I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons shall prophesy, and your daughters].

But such prophecy proceeded from the mouth of the Holy Spirit, which was the sovereign eternal power, in conjunction with the celestial, and some of this number predicted great and marvellous happenings: [though, ] for me, I in no way attribute to myself such a title here.

God forbid! I confess truly that the whole of it comes from God, and render him thanks, honour and immortal praise, without having adulterated it with any of that divination that comes 'a fato' [from any direct prophetic gift]], but 'a Deo, a natura' [from God, from the natural order of things], and most of it backed up by the movements of the celestial round, rather like seeing in a burning-mirror [a concave mirror for concentrating the sun's rays], as though with clouded sight, the great and ominous events and the calamitous happenings that (now) loom at the hands of members of the major religious groups. 

And since, Sire, in this address I am presenting these predictions almost confusedly - both in respect of when each may occur and in the respect of the amount of time which shall elapse until the events themselves - in a way that conforms little, if at all, with the above: [and since], whether by means astronomical or by other means (namely the Holy Scriptures, which can in no wise fail), if I wished to set a definite term [i.e. date] to each quatrain, this could be done: yet this would not be pleasing to all, still less [that I should] interpret them, [at least] until, Sire, your Majesty should have granted me full power to do so, lest any  occasion be given to the slanderers to savage me.

However, counting the years from the creation of the world until the birth of Noah, there passed 1506 years; and from the birth of Noah to the completion of the construction of the Ark in the run-up to the world-flood there passed 600 years (whether the data were solar or lunar or a mixture of the two - though I maintain that the Holy Scriptures hold them to be solar). And at the end of these six (hundred) years, Noah entered the Ark in order to be saved from the flood: and this flood was world-wide, and lasted a year and two months. And from the end of the flood to the birth of Abraham there passed a total of 295 years. And from the birth of Abraham until the birth of Isaac there passed 100 years.

And from Isaac to Jacob, sixty years, [and] from the time when he entered Egypt until he left it again there elapsed 130 years. And from the time when the latter entered Egypt until the exodus therefrom there elapsed 430 years. And from the exodus from Egypt to the building of the Temple, which Solomon constructed in the fourth year of his reign, there passed four hundred and eighty (or fourscore) years. And from the building of the Temple to Jesus Christ, according to the calculation of the sacred scribes, there passed 490 years. And so it is that, according to  this calculations that I have carried out in conjunction with the sacred scriptures, this amounts [in all] to some 4173 years and four months, more or less. [Which would make the theoretical terminal date of the then-conventional 7000 years of earth history 2828 AD!]

Now as regards [the time] from Jesus Christ to now, given the diversity of sects, I shall say nothing. And [I have] reckoned and calculated the present prophecies entirely according to the chain that encompasses its own recurrence, entirely according to Astronomical teaching and to my [own] natural instinct. After some time, and taking in the time when Saturn shall go retrograde to enter [its sign] on the 7th of the month of April until 25th August; Jupiter from 14th June to 7th October; Mars from 17th April until 22nd June; Venus from 9th April to 22nd May; Mercury from 3rd February to 24th of the same - and afterwards from 1st June until the 24th of the same, and from 25th September until 16th October - Saturn [being] in Capricorn; Jupiter in Aquarius; Mars in Scorpio; Venus in Pisces; Mercury in Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces [all] within one month; the Moon in Aquarius; the head of the Dragon in Libra; its tail in the neighbouring sign following a conjunction of Jupiter with Mercury, with a quartile aspect between Mars and Mercury; and the head of the Dragon alongside a conjunction of the sun with Jupiter... [most of this rigmarole seems designed purely to impress and obfuscate, but some of the above seems to apply to the year 1783, if I remember right...!!]

...the year shall be peaceful without any eclipse whatever, and it shall be the start, among other things, of a dispensation that shall endure. And as from that year there shall be inflicted on the Christian Church a greater persecution that was ever carried out in North Africa, and this shall last until the year 1792, which shall be considered as the beginning of a new age. After this the Roman people shall begin to stand up [for themselves] again and to banish certain dark shadows while recovering something of their original light, [though] not without great divisions and continual upheavals.

Thereafter shall Venice with great force and power raise its wings to such a lofty height as barely to fall short of the power of ancient Rome. And at that time great ships from Istanbul, joined with the Italians thanks to the support of powers to the north [Russia and/or Ukraine?], shall in some way prevent  both [types of] Cretans from holding to their promises. Vessels built by the former military shall sail in company through Neptune's waves. In the Adriatic there shall be vast discord, what was united shall be split asunder, and present and former cities (including the all-powerful European Babylon) shall be reduced to a single house on the forty-fifth, forty-first, forty-second and thirty-seventh degrees of latitude [presumably - despite the apparently confused order - Turin, Naples, Rome (here identified as 'Babylon', as in John's Revelation) and Syracuse in Sicily].

And at that time and in those countries the power of hell shall confront the Church of Jesus Christ with all the might of those who oppose its teachings, who shall be the second Antichrist, and who shall persecute the said Church and its true Vicar via the authority of the temporal rulers who in their ignorance shall be seduced by tongues that shall cut more deeply than any maniac's sword.

The said reign of the Antichrist shall last only until the death of him who was born of age and of the other in the city of Plancus [Lyon, founded by Lucius Munatius Plancus in 43 BC ], accompanied by the elected [ruler] of Modena Fulcy [unidentified place-name], near a Ferrara that is supported by Adriatic Italians [Venetians?], as well as by a not-far-distant Sicily. Then the Gallic Ogmion [The Gallic version of the classical Hercules, noted for his eloquence] shall pass the Mountain of Jove [either the Montjuich in Barcelona, or the Capitoline Hill in Rome], accompanied by such a vast host that the Empire shall be presented from afar with a greater dispensation, and then for some time the blood of innocents shall be shed profusely by villains of middle rank. Then in the course of great floods the memory of what is preserved in the documents shall suffer countless losses, as shall even the knowledge of writing itself, especially in the northern hemisphere. And by the will of God Satan shall be bound once more.

And world-peace shall be established among humans, and the Church of Jesus Christ shall be delivered from all its tribulations, despite all the efforts of debauched hedonists to adulterate the honey with the gall of their pestilent seduction. This shall be near [the end of] the the seventh millennium [by contemporary calculations, either 1800 or 1887, but more like 2828 if Nostradamus's figures advanced above are used], when the sanctuary of Jesus Christ shall no longer be trampled underfoot by infidels from the north, and when the world shall be approaching some great conflagration (though my prophetic calculations reveal that time itself will go on for a good while longer).

In the Letter which I dedicated years ago to my son César Nostradamus I declared a number of points fairly openly, without casting them in prophetic form. But here, Sire, are contained many great and awesome events, as those who come after shall see. And during [the period covered by] these astrological calculations, carried out in conjunction with the Sacred Scriptures, the persecution of the clergy shall find its origin in the power of the Northern rulers, united with the Middle Eastern ones.

This persecution shall last eleven years or a little less, whereupon the power of the main northern ruler shall collapse. At the end of these years his southern ally shall move to persecute the clergy even more severely for three years, thanks to the seductive apostasy of one who holds absolute power in the Church Militant. The holy people of God who do still observe its laws shall, like the religious orders themselves, be greatly persecuted and afflicted, to such an extent that the blood of true churchmen and churchwomen shall flow far and wide. One of the most horrible of the political rulers, indeed, shall be praised by his followers for having spilt more of the blood of innocent churchpeople than anybody could possibly have wine in his wine-cellar. This ruler shall commit the most incredible crimes against the Church. Human blood shall flow through the city streets and churches, like water after heavy rain. Nearby rivers shall run red with blood, just as shall the sea after a naval battle that shall cause one ruler to report to another that 'Bellis rubuit navalibus aequor' [Latin (Virgil?): 'The sea blushed red with blood of naval war.' ]

Then, in that same year and in those following, there shall ensue the most terrible pestilence, made even more awful by the famine that shall precede it. And there shall be tribulations, even throughout the Latin nations, greater than any that have occurred since the first foundation of the Christian Church, such as to leave their traces even in various countries of the Iberian peninsula.

Then the third Northern ruler, hearing the pleas of the people of his principal domain, shall raise a huge army. Re-crossing the straits once traversed by his most recent predecessors and those before them, he shall restore most things to rights. The great Vicar of the Cope, too, shall be restored to his original state that shall  have been laid waste and then completely abandoned, and he shall return to his Holy of Holies (now destroyed by paganism) from which Old and New Testaments alike shall have been been thrown out and burnt.  And after the Antichrist shall come the Prince of Hell. And so yet again - though for the last time - all the Kingdoms of Christendom shall tremble, as shall the heathen too, for the space of twenty-five years. There shall be even more terrible wars and battles, and towns, cities, castles and all other buildings shall be burnt, sacked and destroyed. There shall be a great shedding of virgin blood; married women and widows shall be raped; sucking babes shall be dashed and broken against town walls. So many evils shall be committed through the agency of Satan, Prince of Hell that almost the entire world shall find itself undone and destroyed. And before these events a number of unusual birds shall cry in mid-air 'Huy! Huy!' [in Old French, 'Today! Today!', but in Hebrew, 'Woe! Woe!' as per the premonitory eagle of John's Revelation], and after some time they shall [be found to have] disappear[ed] again.

And after this period has lasted for a good long time, what shall be virtually a new reign of Saturn or Golden Age shall be established. Paying heed to the afflictions of His people, God shall order Satan to be bound and thrown into the deep pit of the bottomless abyss. Then a universal peace shall commence between God and man, while Satan shall stay bound for around the space of a thousand years, before being unleashed again to turn all his might against the power of the Church.

In order that all these figures might be more precisely collated by means of the sacred scriptures with visible celestial phenomena - i.e. in conjunction with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and so on - as might be seen in greater detail by applying various quartiles, I could have gone more deeply into my calculations and adapted the one to the other.

But seeing, O Most Serene King, that some critics will have difficulty [with it], and that this will be the reason for my withdrawal of my pen for the sake of my nightly rest: 'Multa etiam ô Rex omium potentissime praeclara et sane in brevi ventura, sed omnia in hac tua epistola innectere non possumus nec volumes: sed ad intelliganda quaedam facta horrida fata, pauca libanda sunt, qamvis tanta sit in omnes tua amplitudo et humanitas homines, deosque pietas, ut solus amplissimo et Christianissimo Regis nomine, et ad quem summa totius religionis auctoritas deferatur dignus esse videare' ["Many remarkable things, O most puissant King of all, are doubtless shortly to happen, but we neither can nor will include them in this your letter: yet in order that you should understand such horrible events as are predicted, it is necessary to divulge some of them, even though your generosity and humanity toward all men are so great, as is your Divine piety, that you alone are seen to be worthy of the full Christian title of King, to whom  the highest authority in all relgions should be accorded"].

But I beseech you, O most merciful King, by this your unique and wise humanity rather to harken to the desire of my heart - and the sovereign care that I have had to obey your most serene Majesty ever since my eyes were so near to your sunlike splendour - [but] only to the extent that the magnitude of my labour achieves and deserves it. From Salon this 27th June, one thousand five hundred and fifty-eight.