"Skeptical Inquirer" fall, 1991
'The Skeptic" (UK) Vol 8 No.3 (1994)
"Skeptical Inquirer" fall, 1991
James ("The Amazing") Randi has again produced something well worth the reader's consideration: a serious study of the sixteenth-century 'prophet" whose latinized name was Nostradamus. The subject is a fit one for Randi's no-nonsense style, which is concise and logical-and impatient with foggy notions and far-reaching speculations masquerading as some sort of "science" of foreseeing future events. Such impatience may apply (and is applied by Randi) even more to Nostradamus's later "interpreters" than to the original figure. Randi makes a good case for taking hostile views of prophets and offers explanations of what they do and how they produce material convincing to some.
But the book is not a simple attack. Randi has approached the subject in a serious way. He has enlisted the aid of historians and historical documents and he visited the places in France frequented by Nostradamus. Such care on his part has resulted in revealing insights into the meaning of some of the seer's writings.
In our age, "believers" have attempted to show that some of Nostradamus's quatrains predict the career of Adolf Hitler, and even the Japanese aggression in 1941. See, for instance, Randi's comments on the quatrain No. 4-68 (his chosen Specimen #9, p. 215). Here, followers of Nostradamus have taken allusions to "the two greatest of Asia & Africa" to mean Japan and Mussolini (Randi citing James Laver's interpretation). And Hitler enters through the name "Hister" for the "Lower Danube." (It is true that the Danube was in ancient times called the "Ister.") According to Randi, the quatrain predicts trouble for perhaps Venice and Genoa, as well as for Malta. (Here, I should like to say that the literate men of the time of Nostradamus read the rediscovered classics of the Greeks and Romans. In the works they read, "Asia" is to be taken to be Asia Minor: and the "greatest" of Asia Minor at that time was obviously Turkey, which had already captured Constantinople and marched on Europe. The "greatest" of Africa we might take to be Egypt, where the Mamlukes were once part of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were the real menace during the time of Nostradamus. Randi noted that danger elsewhere in his book, but I think it might bear upon Specimen No. 9, which he chose for analysis. Turkey might menace parts of Europe as well as such islands as Malta.)
In any event, those with any fascination for the works of Nostradamus-as well as those suspicious of them-will find this volume well worth their time. As a matter of interest, I would add to Randi's opinion that physician Nostradamus's use of remedies from roses was fallacious, to note that such usage was traditional: see Moses Maimonides's recipes, for instance. That twelfth-century physician/philosopher/author mentioned the medical use of rose products extensively in his The Preservation of Youth; he had begun in Spain but ended his days in Cairo, an older man at the time of Richard the Lionhearted's crusade. The use of the rose shows that medieval views and "ancient knowledge" were still being taught at the time of the Renaissance in northern Europe.
Randi's translations from the French text are straightforward and seem reasonable. The quatrain we have mentioned in this review (Randi's #9), is translated by him thusly (p. 215):
In the year very near, not far from Venus,
The two greatest of Asia & Africa
From the Rhine & Lower Danube, which will be said to have come,
Cries, tears at Malta & the Ligurian coast.
Finally, I should like to remark that if one finds the writings of Nostradamus to be difficult, they are yet considerably clearer than the so-called "Prophecies of Merlin," which are marvels of obscurity. The interested reader can find these latter in Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain (pp. 170-185 of the Penguin paperback edition).
H. H. Trotti is author of Beasts and Battles: Fact in Legend and History? (Rivercross Publishing, 1990).
'The Skeptic" (UK) Vol 8 No.3 (1994)
Seeing behind the mask
James Randi, The Mask of Nostradamus (Prometheus Books, 1990, paperback, 256 pages, £14.50)
More than 400 years after his death, Michel Nostradamus is famous as a prophet who correctly predicted, among other things, the death of Charles I, the French revolution, and the rise of both Napoleon and Hitler. He is also said to predict the end of the world, real soon now. The story of this man and his remarkable poetry, the 'Centuries', is familiar from hundreds of books, articles, and broadcasts. Who was Nostradamus? What did he really do and write? Did he really predict the future with uncanny accuracy?
In The Mask of Nostradamus, the renowned magician and nonsense-basher James Randi critically examines the fact and fiction surrounding Nostradamus and his prophesies. Extensive research and hard work resulted in a story somewhat less than miraculous. 'Twas ever thus. Unlike the vast majority of Notstradamians, Randi sought out first hand information: the original writings of Nostradamus (in archaic French), contemporary records of his life and of his times. This allowed Randi to construct a picture of Nostradamus, the man and his work, and to discern the layers of mistakes, mythology, and outright forgery that have built his reputation over the years.
Nostradamus was a real man (this was not a forgone conclusion!), a physician and astrologer, and was famous in his own day as a prophet. Randi reveals something of the character of the man, including a little suspected inclination to Protestantism-a lethal leaning if publicly known in his time. The principal work of Nostradamus are the 'Centuries', some 940 four-line 'quatrains' of obscure verse, written in sixteenth century Provincal. These works were intended to be prophetic, and are, as Randi says, typical of prophecy: vague, 'symbolic', and voluminous.
Most of the writings attributed to Nostradamus are his (again: not a forgone conclusion!), although a few forgeries and many errors have crept in. Some of Nostradamus' predictions are clear, and these proved inaccurate. The majority of Nostradamus' quatrains are so cryptic that the 'prophetic meaning' is only apparent by diligent interpretation. Diligent interpreters have found (what they see as) clear references to historic events. This is done by interpreting the 'symbolism' in the verses, and by rearranging letters and words to 'reveal' the 'true' meaning which Nostradamus supposedly disguised in anagrams. Actually, it seems that it is also fair to add and delete letters, to change punctuation, and to juxtapose lines from disparate parts of the work. As you might imagine, the result bears little resemblance to the original text, and has an unknown relationship to Nostradamus' intentions. Such manipulations do, with sufficient ingenuity and disregard for historical facts, yield remarkable matches with alleged historical events.
Randi documents some of the more spectacular (mis)interpretations of Nostradamus, and shows them to be completely bogus. Not content simply to show the silliness of others, Randi provides a few interpretations of his own. He shows the most famous 'predictions' (such as the quatrains that supposedly predicted the rise of Hitler) are most likely references to events in Nostradamus' own time (always the easiest predictions to get correct!) or so vague as to be unidentifiable.
This book has one minor and one major shortcoming. Randi writes as I suspect he lives-with great energy in many directions at once. One could wish for a more focussed style, with fewer digressions. The major flaw in this book is the near total lack of citations. It is clear that Randi drew on many sources, collaborating with competent scholars and including his own original research. But it is impossible to tell what the sources of specific claims are and which work is his own original contribution. It is a shame that proper citations were not included, even though the book is clearly intended to be popular rather than scholarly.
The great merit of this book is, of course, that it was written. Nostradamus' extraordinary powers are almost universally accepted, without the least attempt to critically evaluate them. Now there is at least one book where one can learn a lot about the real Nostradamus, and separate the man from his myth.
-Robert E McGrath