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146-412: Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus , was a French astrologer , apothecary , physician , and reputed seer , who is best known for his book Les Prophéties (published in 1555), a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events. Nostradamus's father's family had originally been Jewish, but had converted to Catholic Christianity
292-509: A modern Latin style. It is commonly found with historical proper names , including personal names and toponyms , and in the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than romanisation , which is the transliteration of a word to the Latin alphabet from another script (e.g. Cyrillic ). For authors writing in Latin, this change allows the name to function grammatically in
438-547: A "lost book" of his own prophetic paintings; he had been buried standing up; and he had been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of his disinterment. This was first recorded by Samuel Pepys as early as 1667, long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated diary a legend that, before his death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but that 60 years later his body
584-468: A "rose pill" that purportedly protected against the plague. In 1531 Nostradamus was invited by Jules-César Scaliger , a leading Renaissance scholar , to come to Agen . There he married a woman of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), with whom he had two children. In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the plague. After their deaths, he continued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy. On his return in 1545, he assisted
730-602: A Roman amphitheatre now known as the Arènes ) as a prediction of an undated attack on the Pentagon , despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter to King Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor. With the exception of Roberts, these books and their many popular imitators were almost unanimous not merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy but also in inventing intriguing aspects of his purported biography: that he had been
876-1117: A common denominator. This can be achieved by scaling the first number with the denominator of the second number while scaling the second number with the denominator of the first number. For instance, 1 3 + 1 2 = 1 ⋅ 2 3 ⋅ 2 + 1 ⋅ 3 2 ⋅ 3 = 2 6 + 3 6 = 5 6 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{3}}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}={\tfrac {1\cdot 2}{3\cdot 2}}+{\tfrac {1\cdot 3}{2\cdot 3}}={\tfrac {2}{6}}+{\tfrac {3}{6}}={\tfrac {5}{6}}} . Two rational numbers are multiplied by multiplying their numerators and their denominators respectively, as in 2 3 ⋅ 2 5 = 2 ⋅ 2 3 ⋅ 5 = 4 15 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {2}{3}}\cdot {\tfrac {2}{5}}={\tfrac {2\cdot 2}{3\cdot 5}}={\tfrac {4}{15}}} . Dividing one rational number by another can be achieved by multiplying
1022-545: A descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar ; he had been educated by his grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King René of Provence ; he had attended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree; after returning there in 1529, he had successfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there, until his views became too unpopular; he had supported
1168-632: A description of the methods he used to treat the plague, including bloodletting, none of which apparently worked. The same book also describes the preparation of cosmetics. A manuscript normally known as the Orus Apollo also exists in the Lyon municipal library, where upwards of 2,000 original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under the aegis of Michel Chomarat. It is a purported translation of an ancient Greek work on Egyptian hieroglyphs based on later Latin versions, all of them unfortunately ignorant of
1314-442: A general identity element since 1 is not the neutral element for the base. Exponentiation and logarithm are neither commutative nor associative. Different types of arithmetic systems are discussed in the academic literature. They differ from each other based on what type of number they operate on, what numeral system they use to represent them, and whether they operate on mathematical objects other than numbers. Integer arithmetic
1460-488: A generation before Nostradamus was born. He studied at the University of Avignon , but was forced to leave after just over a year when the university closed due to an outbreak of the plague . He worked as an apothecary for several years before entering the University of Montpellier , hoping to earn a doctorate, but was almost immediately expelled after his work as an apothecary (a manual trade forbidden by university statutes)
1606-410: A limited amount of basic numerals, which directly refer to certain numbers. The system governs how these basic numerals may be combined to express any number. Numeral systems are either positional or non-positional. All early numeral systems were non-positional. For non-positional numeral systems, the value of a digit does not depend on its position in the numeral. The simplest non-positional system
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#17328695173281752-575: A line referring to "that people which stands under the sign of the crooked cross" was added as an allusion to the German people standing under the Nazi flag with its swastika. Goebbels reportedly had that line inserted into leather bound original volumes of Nostradamus' work, volumes that were then seeded in libraries across Nazi-occupied Europe so that the line would seem credible. The prophecies retold and expanded by Nostradamus figured largely in popular culture in
1898-411: A magic mirror or a bowl of water; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter 1554; having published the first installment of his Prophéties , he had been summoned by Queen Catherine de' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husband King Henri II would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at Blois ; he had bequeathed to his son
2044-460: A more complex non-positional numeral system . They have additional symbols for numbers like 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000. These symbols can be combined into a sum to more conveniently express larger numbers. For instance, the numeral for 10,405 uses one time the symbol for 10,000, four times the symbol for 100, and five times the symbol for 1. A similar well-known framework is the Roman numeral system . It has
2190-639: A number, it is also possible to multiply by its reciprocal . The reciprocal of a number is 1 divided by that number. For instance, 48 ÷ 8 = 48 × 1 8 {\displaystyle 48\div 8=48\times {\tfrac {1}{8}}} . The multiplicative identity element is 1 and the multiplicative inverse of a number is the reciprocal of that number. For example, 13 × 1 = 13 {\displaystyle 13\times 1=13} and 13 × 1 13 = 1 {\displaystyle 13\times {\tfrac {1}{13}}=1} . Multiplication
2336-501: A one-thirteenth share in a huge canal project, organised by Adam de Craponne , to create the Canal de Craponne to irrigate the largely waterless Salon-de-Provence and the nearby Désert de la Crau from the river Durance . After another visit to Italy, Nostradamus began to move away from medicine and toward the "occult". Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time in print Latinising his name to Nostradamus. He
2482-490: A plane. Further branches of number theory are probabilistic number theory , which employs methods from probability theory , combinatorial number theory , which relies on the field of combinatorics , computational number theory , which approaches number-theoretic problems with computational methods, and applied number theory, which examines the application of number theory to fields like physics , biology , and cryptography . Influential theorems in number theory include
2628-693: A playful element of punning. Such names could be a cover for humble social origins. The title of the " Wilhelmus ", national anthem of the Netherlands , preserves a Latinised form of the name of William the Silent . In English, place names often appear in Latinised form. This is a result of many early text books mentioning the places being written in Latin. Because of this, the English language often uses Latinised forms of foreign place names instead of anglicised forms or
2774-553: A positive number as its base. The same is true for the logarithm of positive real numbers as long as the logarithm base is positive and not 1. Irrational numbers involve an infinite non-repeating series of decimal digits. Because of this, there is often no simple and accurate way to express the results of arithmetic operations like 2 + π {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}+\pi } or e ⋅ 3 {\displaystyle e\cdot {\sqrt {3}}} . In cases where absolute precision
2920-559: A process sometimes known as "retroactive clairvoyance" ( postdiction ). No Nostradamus quatrain is known to have been interpreted as predicting a specific event before it occurred, other than in vague, general terms that could equally apply to any number of other events. This even applies to quatrains that contain specific dates, such as III.77, which predicts "in 1727, in October, the king of Persia [shall be] captured by those of Egypt"—a prophecy that has, as ever, been interpreted retrospectively in
3066-507: A range of values if one does not know the precise magnitude, for example, because of measurement errors . Interval arithmetic includes operations like addition and multiplication on intervals, as in [ 1 , 2 ] + [ 3 , 4 ] = [ 4 , 6 ] {\displaystyle [1,2]+[3,4]=[4,6]} and [ 1 , 2 ] × [ 3 , 4 ] = [ 3 , 8 ] {\displaystyle [1,2]\times [3,4]=[3,8]} . It
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#17328695173283212-525: A recent royal decree by publishing his 1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop. By 1566, Nostradamus' gout , which had plagued him painfully for many years and made movement very difficult, turned into edema . In late June he summoned his lawyer to draw up an extensive will bequeathing his property plus 3,444 crowns (around US$ 300,000 today), minus a few debts, to his wife pending her remarriage, in trust for her sons pending their twenty-fifth birthdays and her daughters pending their marriages. This
3358-463: A sentence through declension . In a scientific context, the main purpose of Latinisation may be to produce a name which is internationally consistent. Latinisation may be carried out by: Humanist names, assumed by Renaissance humanists , were largely Latinised names, though in some cases (e.g. Melanchthon ) they invoked Ancient Greek . Latinisation in humanist names may consist of translation from vernacular European languages, sometimes involving
3504-444: A series of two operations, it does not matter which operation is carried out first. This is the case for multiplication, for example, since ( 5 × 4 ) × 2 {\displaystyle (5\times 4)\times 2} is the same as 5 × ( 4 × 2 ) {\displaystyle 5\times (4\times 2)} . Addition is an arithmetic operation in which two numbers, called
3650-402: A similar role in the sciences , like physics and economics . Arithmetic is present in many aspects of daily life , for example, to calculate change while shopping or to manage personal finances . It is one of the earliest forms of mathematics education that students encounter. Its cognitive and conceptual foundations are studied by psychology and philosophy . The practice of arithmetic
3796-478: A single person or small group of people. Some cover a single town, others several towns in several countries. A major, underlying theme is an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from farther east and south headed by the expected Antichrist , directly reflecting the then-current Ottoman invasions and the earlier Saracen equivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the Mirabilis Liber . All of this
3942-439: A special type of rational numbers since their denominator is a power of 10. For instance, 0.3 is equal to 3 10 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{10}}} , and 25.12 is equal to 2512 100 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {2512}{100}}} . Every rational number corresponds to a finite or a repeating decimal . Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed through
4088-402: A title here. Not that I am foolish enough to claim to be a prophet. Given this reliance on literary sources, it is unlikely that Nostradamus used any particular methods for entering a trance state , other than contemplation , meditation and incubation . His sole description of this process is contained in 'letter 41' of his collected Latin correspondence. The popular legend that he attempted
4234-556: Is exponentiation by squaring . It breaks down the calculation into a number of squaring operations. For example, the exponentiation 3 65 {\displaystyle 3^{65}} can be written as ( ( ( ( ( 3 2 ) 2 ) 2 ) 2 ) 2 ) 2 × 3 {\displaystyle (((((3^{2})^{2})^{2})^{2})^{2})^{2}\times 3} . By taking advantage of repeated squaring operations, only 7 individual operations are needed rather than
4380-406: Is 0 and the additive inverse of a number is the negative of that number. For instance, 13 + 0 = 13 {\displaystyle 13+0=13} and 13 + ( − 13 ) = 0 {\displaystyle 13+(-13)=0} . Addition is both commutative and associative. Multiplication is an arithmetic operation in which two numbers, called the multiplier and
4526-426: Is 0. 3 . Every repeating decimal expresses a rational number. Real number arithmetic is the branch of arithmetic that deals with the manipulation of both rational and irrational numbers. Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed through fractions or repeated decimals, like the root of 2 and π . Unlike rational number arithmetic, real number arithmetic is closed under exponentiation as long as it uses
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4672-413: Is a persistent tradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfather Jean de St. Rémy—a tradition which is somewhat undermined by the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after 1504 when the child was only one year old. At the age of 14, Nostradamus entered the University of Avignon to study for his baccalaureate . After little more than a year (when he would have studied
4818-545: Is a prime number that has no other prime factorization. Euclid's theorem states that there are infinitely many prime numbers. Fermat's last theorem is the statement that no positive integer values can be found for a {\displaystyle a} , b {\displaystyle b} , and c {\displaystyle c} , to solve the equation a n + b n = c n {\displaystyle a^{n}+b^{n}=c^{n}} if n {\displaystyle n}
4964-465: Is a relatively crude method, with some unintuitive subtleties; explicitly keeping track of an estimate or upper bound of the approximation error is a more sophisticated approach. In the example, the person's height might be represented as 1.62 ± 0.005 meters or 63.8 ± 0.2 inches . In performing calculations with uncertain quantities, the uncertainty should be propagated to calculated quantities. When adding or subtracting two or more quantities, add
5110-902: Is a similar process in which the last preserved digit is increased by one if the next digit is 5 or greater but remains the same if the next digit is less than 5, so that the rounded number is the best approximation of a given precision for the original number. For instance, if the number π is rounded to 4 decimal places, the result is 3.142 because the following digit is a 5, so 3.142 is closer to π than 3.141. These methods allow computers to efficiently perform approximate calculations on real numbers. In science and engineering, numbers represent estimates of physical quantities derived from measurement or modeling. Unlike mathematically exact numbers such as π or 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}} , scientifically relevant numerical data are inherently inexact, involving some measurement uncertainty . One basic way to express
5256-414: Is about calculations with real numbers , which include both rational and irrational numbers . Another distinction is based on the numeral system employed to perform calculations. Decimal arithmetic is the most common. It uses the basic numerals from 0 to 9 and their combinations to express numbers . Binary arithmetic, by contrast, is used by most computers and represents numbers as combinations of
5402-507: Is an elementary branch of mathematics that studies numerical operations like addition , subtraction , multiplication , and division . In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation , extraction of roots , and taking logarithms . Arithmetic systems can be distinguished based on the type of numbers they operate on. Integer arithmetic is about calculations with positive and negative integers . Rational number arithmetic involves operations on fractions of integers. Real number arithmetic
5548-450: Is an inverse of the operation " ∘ {\displaystyle \circ } " if it fulfills the following condition: t ⋆ s = r {\displaystyle t\star s=r} if and only if r ∘ s = t {\displaystyle r\circ s=t} . Commutativity and associativity are laws governing the order in which some arithmetic operations can be carried out. An operation
5694-436: Is applied to another element. For example, the identity element of addition is 0 since any sum of a number and 0 results in the same number. The inverse element is the element that results in the identity element when combined with another element. For instance, the additive inverse of the number 6 is -6 since their sum is 0. There are not only inverse elements but also inverse operations . In an informal sense, one operation
5840-516: Is at least thousands and possibly tens of thousands of years old. Ancient civilizations like the Egyptians and the Sumerians invented numeral systems to solve practical arithmetic problems in about 3000 BCE. Starting in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, the ancient Greeks initiated a more abstract study of numbers and introduced the method of rigorous mathematical proofs . The ancient Indians developed
5986-583: Is both commutative and associative. Exponentiation is an arithmetic operation in which a number, known as the base, is raised to the power of another number, known as the exponent. The result of this operation is called the power. Exponentiation is sometimes expressed using the symbol ^ but the more common way is to write the exponent in superscript right after the base. Examples are 2 4 = 16 {\displaystyle 2^{4}=16} and 3 {\displaystyle 3} ^ 3 = 27 {\displaystyle 3=27} . If
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6132-403: Is closed under division as long as the divisor is not 0. Both integer arithmetic and rational number arithmetic are not closed under exponentiation and logarithm. One way to calculate exponentiation with a fractional exponent is to perform two separate calculations: one exponentiation using the numerator of the exponent followed by drawing the nth root of the result based on the denominator of
6278-401: Is commutative if the order of the arguments can be changed without affecting the results. This is the case for addition, for instance, 7 + 9 {\displaystyle 7+9} is the same as 9 + 7 {\displaystyle 9+7} . Associativity is a rule that affects the order in which a series of operations can be carried out. An operation is associative if, in
6424-431: Is greater than 2 {\displaystyle 2} . Rational number arithmetic is the branch of arithmetic that deals with the manipulation of numbers that can be expressed as a ratio of two integers. Most arithmetic operations on rational numbers can be calculated by performing a series of integer arithmetic operations on the numerators and the denominators of the involved numbers. If two rational numbers have
6570-439: Is infinite without repeating decimals. The set of rational numbers together with the set of irrational numbers makes up the set of real numbers. The symbol of the real numbers is R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } . Even wider classes of numbers include complex numbers and quaternions . A numeral is a symbol to represent a number and numeral systems are representational frameworks. They usually have
6716-440: Is no warrant for assuming—as would-be "code-breakers" are prone to do—that either the spellings or the punctuation of any edition are Nostradamus's originals. The Almanacs , by far the most popular of his works, were published annually from 1550 until his death. He often published two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs (detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (more generalised predictions). Nostradamus
6862-427: Is not closed under division. This means that when dividing one integer by another integer, the result is not always an integer. For instance, 7 divided by 2 is not a whole number but 3.5. One way to ensure that the result is an integer is to round the result to a whole number. However, this method leads to inaccuracies as the original value is altered. Another method is to perform the division only partially and retain
7008-417: Is not required, the problem of calculating arithmetic operations on real numbers is usually addressed by truncation or rounding . For truncation, a certain number of leftmost digits are kept and remaining digits are discarded or replaced by zeros. For example, the number π has an infinite number of digits starting with 3.14159.... If this number is truncated to 4 decimal places, the result is 3.141. Rounding
7154-437: Is often treated as a special case of addition: instead of subtracting a positive number, it is also possible to add a negative number. For instance 14 − 8 = 14 + ( − 8 ) {\displaystyle 14-8=14+(-8)} . This helps to simplify mathematical computations by reducing the number of basic arithmetic operations needed to perform calculations. The additive identity element
7300-557: Is presented in the context of the supposedly imminent end of the world—even though this is not in fact mentioned—a conviction that sparked numerous collections of end-time prophecies at the time, including an unpublished collection by Christopher Columbus . Views on Nostradamus have varied widely throughout history. Academic views, such as those of Jacques Halbronn, regard Nostradamus's Prophecies as antedated forgeries written by later authors for political reasons. Many of Nostradamus's supporters believe his prophecies are genuine. Owing to
7446-468: Is reflected in the fact that he explicitly rejected the label "prophet" (i.e. a person having prophetic powers of his own) on several occasions: Although, my son, I have used the word prophet , I would not attribute to myself a title of such lofty sublimity. Not that I would attribute to myself either the name or the role of a prophet. [S]ome of [the prophets] predicted great and marvelous things to come: [though] for me, I in no way attribute to myself such
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#17328695173287592-930: Is restricted to the study of integers and focuses on their properties and relationships such as divisibility , factorization , and primality . Traditionally, it is known as higher arithmetic. Numbers are mathematical objects used to count quantities and measure magnitudes. They are fundamental elements in arithmetic since all arithmetic operations are performed on numbers. There are different kinds of numbers and different numeral systems to represent them. The main kinds of numbers employed in arithmetic are natural numbers , whole numbers, integers , rational numbers , and real numbers . The natural numbers are whole numbers that start from 1 and go to infinity. They exclude 0 and negative numbers. They are also known as counting numbers and can be expressed as { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , . . . } {\displaystyle \{1,2,3,4,...\}} . The symbol of
7738-517: Is the unary numeral system . It relies on one symbol for the number 1. All higher numbers are written by repeating this symbol. For example, the number 7 can be represented by repeating the symbol for 1 seven times. This system makes it cumbersome to write large numbers, which is why many non-positional systems include additional symbols to directly represent larger numbers. Variations of the unary numeral systems are employed in tally sticks using dents and in tally marks . Egyptian hieroglyphics had
7884-462: Is the branch of arithmetic that deals with the manipulation of positive and negative whole numbers. Simple one-digit operations can be performed by following or memorizing a table that presents the results of all possible combinations, like an addition table or a multiplication table . Other common methods are verbal counting and finger-counting . For operations on numbers with more than one digit, different techniques can be employed to calculate
8030-428: Is the inverse of another operation if it undoes the first operation. For example, subtraction is the inverse of addition since a number returns to its original value if a second number is first added and subsequently subtracted, as in 13 + 4 − 4 = 13 {\displaystyle 13+4-4=13} . Defined more formally, the operation " ⋆ {\displaystyle \star } "
8176-413: Is the inverse of exponentiation. The logarithm of a number x {\displaystyle x} to the base b {\displaystyle b} is the exponent to which b {\displaystyle b} must be raised to produce x {\displaystyle x} . For instance, since 1000 = 10 3 {\displaystyle 1000=10^{3}} ,
8322-591: The Hindu–Arabic numeral system , the radix is 10. This means that the first digit is multiplied by 10 0 {\displaystyle 10^{0}} , the next digit is multiplied by 10 1 {\displaystyle 10^{1}} , and so on. For example, the decimal numeral 532 stands for 5 ⋅ 10 2 + 3 ⋅ 10 1 + 2 ⋅ 10 0 {\displaystyle 5\cdot 10^{2}+3\cdot 10^{1}+2\cdot 10^{0}} . Because of
8468-599: The University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards by the student procurator , Guillaume Rondelet , when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university statutes, and had been slandering doctors. The expulsion document, BIU Montpellier, Register S 2 folio 87 , still exists in the faculty library. Some of his publishers and correspondents would later call him "Doctor". After his expulsion, Nostradamus continued working, presumably still as an apothecary, and became famous for creating
8614-428: The absolute uncertainties of each summand together to obtain the absolute uncertainty of the sum. When multiplying or dividing two or more quantities, add the relative uncertainties of each factor together to obtain the relative uncertainty of the product. When representing uncertainty by significant digits, uncertainty can be coarsely propagated by rounding the result of adding or subtracting two or more quantities to
8760-494: The fundamental theorem of arithmetic , Euclid's theorem , and Fermat's last theorem . According to the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, every integer greater than 1 is either a prime number or can be represented as a unique product of prime numbers. For example, the number 18 is not a prime number and can be represented as 2 × 3 × 3 {\displaystyle 2\times 3\times 3} , all of which are prime numbers. The number 19 , by contrast,
8906-543: The heliocentric view of the universe; he had travelled to the Habsburg Netherlands, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in the course of his travels, he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying future Pope, Sixtus V , who was then only a seminary monk. He is credited with having successfully cured the Plague at Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere; he had engaged in scrying , using either
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#17328695173289052-584: The lattice method . Computer science is interested in multiplication algorithms with a low computational complexity to be able to efficiently multiply very large integers, such as the Karatsuba algorithm , the Schönhage–Strassen algorithm , and the Toom–Cook algorithm . A common technique used for division is called long division . Other methods include short division and chunking . Integer arithmetic
9198-431: The quotient . The symbols of division are ÷ {\displaystyle \div } and / {\displaystyle /} . Examples are 48 ÷ 8 = 6 {\displaystyle 48\div 8=6} and 29.4 / 1.4 = 21 {\displaystyle 29.4/1.4=21} . Division is often treated as a special case of multiplication: instead of dividing by
9344-568: The remainder . For example, 7 divided by 2 is 3 with a remainder of 1. These difficulties are avoided by rational number arithmetic, which allows for the exact representation of fractions. A simple method to calculate exponentiation is by repeated multiplication. For instance, the exponentiation of 3 4 {\displaystyle 3^{4}} can be calculated as 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 {\displaystyle 3\times 3\times 3\times 3} . A more efficient technique used for large exponents
9490-527: The "bronze tripod" of the Delphic rite are usually preceded by the words "as though" (compare, once again, External References to the original texts). Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles—all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber . Some quatrains cover these disasters in overall terms; others concern
9636-641: The 'quality' (and thus potential) of events such as births, weddings, coronations etc.—but was heavily criticised by professional astrologers of the day such as Laurens Videl for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" (the comparison of future planetary configurations with those accompanying known past events) could actually predict what would happen in the future. Research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-world prophecies (mainly Bible-based), supplemented with references to historical events and anthologies of omen reports, and then projects those into
9782-471: The 16th-century French texts; or on pure invention. Even the often-advanced suggestion that quatrain I.35 had successfully prophesied King Henry II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 years after the event. Skeptics such as James Randi suggest that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-day supporters who fit his words to events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to be inevitable,
9928-422: The 20th and 21st centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and nonfiction), Nostradamus' life has been depicted in several films and videos, and his life and writings continue to be a subject of media interest. Latinisation of names Latinisation (or Latinization ) of names , also known as onomastic Latinisation , is the practice of rendering a non - Latin name in
10074-448: The 64 operations required for regular repeated multiplication. Methods to calculate logarithms include the Taylor series and continued fractions . Integer arithmetic is not closed under logarithm and under exponentiation with negative exponents, meaning that the result of these operations is not always an integer. Number theory studies the structure and properties of integers as well as
10220-490: The Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" (Our Lady), the saint on whose day his conversion was solemnised. The earliest ancestor who can be identified on the paternal side is Astruge of Carcassonne , who died about 1420. Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jean (c. 1507–1577), Pierre, Hector, Louis, Bertrand, Jean II (born 1522) and Antoine (born 1523). Little else is known about his childhood, although there
10366-599: The Latin term " arithmetica " which derives from the Ancient Greek words ἀριθμός (arithmos), meaning "number", and ἀριθμητική τέχνη (arithmetike tekhne), meaning "the art of counting". There are disagreements about its precise definition. According to a narrow characterization, arithmetic deals only with natural numbers . However, the more common view is to include operations on integers , rational numbers , real numbers , and sometimes also complex numbers in its scope. Some definitions restrict arithmetic to
10512-520: The Millennium: Predictions of the Future , Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies (1999) and Nostradamus: A Life and Myth (2003). In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be able to contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him "interpreting" his own verse X.6 (a prediction specifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nîmes and people taking refuge in its collosse , or Colosseum,
10658-457: The accuracy and speed with which arithmetic calculations could be performed. Arithmetic is the fundamental branch of mathematics that studies numbers and their operations. In particular, it deals with numerical calculations using the arithmetic operations of addition , subtraction , multiplication , and division . In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation , extraction of roots , and logarithm . The term "arithmetic" has its root in
10804-435: The addends, are combined into a single number, called the sum. The symbol of addition is + {\displaystyle +} . Examples are 2 + 2 = 4 {\displaystyle 2+2=4} and 6.3 + 1.26 = 7.56 {\displaystyle 6.3+1.26=7.56} . The term summation is used if several additions are performed in a row. Counting is a type of repeated addition in which
10950-553: The ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or both simultaneously is based on a naive reading of his first two verses, which merely liken his efforts to those of the Delphic and Branchidic oracles . The first of these is reproduced at the bottom of this article and the second can be seen by visiting the relevant facsimile site (see External Links). In his dedication to King Henry II, Nostradamus describes "emptying my soul, mind and heart of all care, worry and unease through mental calm and tranquility", but his frequent references to
11096-510: The base can be understood from context. So, the previous example can be written log 10 1000 = 3 {\displaystyle \log _{10}1000=3} . Exponentiation and logarithm do not have general identity elements and inverse elements like addition and multiplication. The neutral element of exponentiation in relation to the exponent is 1, as in 14 1 = 14 {\displaystyle 14^{1}=14} . However, exponentiation does not have
11242-401: The basic numerals 0 and 1. Computer arithmetic deals with the specificities of the implementation of binary arithmetic on computers . Some arithmetic systems operate on mathematical objects other than numbers, such as interval arithmetic and matrix arithmetic. Arithmetic operations form the basis of many branches of mathematics, such as algebra , calculus , and statistics . They play
11388-519: The basis for the documentary The Man Who Saw Tomorrow and both did indeed mention possible generalised future attacks on New York (via nuclear weapons ), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date. A two-part translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's Nostradamus: historien et prophète was published in 1980, and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987, including Nostradamus and
11534-420: The birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he frequently made errors and failed to adjust the figures for his clients' place or time of birth. He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand mainly French quatrains, which constitute
11680-440: The claim that every even number is a sum of two prime numbers . Algebraic number theory employs algebraic structures to analyze the properties of and relations between numbers. Examples are the use of fields and rings , as in algebraic number fields like the ring of integers . Geometric number theory uses concepts from geometry to study numbers. For instance, it investigates how lattice points with integer coordinates behave in
11826-497: The concept of zero and the decimal system , which Arab mathematicians further refined and spread to the Western world during the medieval period. The first mechanical calculators were invented in the 17th century. The 18th and 19th centuries saw the development of modern number theory and the formulation of axiomatic foundations of arithmetic. In the 20th century, the emergence of electronic calculators and computers revolutionized
11972-488: The decimal fraction notation. Modified versions of integer calculation methods like addition with carry and long multiplication can be applied to calculations with decimal fractions. Not all rational numbers have a finite representation in the decimal notation. For example, the rational number 1 3 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{3}}} corresponds to 0.333... with an infinite number of 3s. The shortened notation for this type of repeating decimal
12118-522: The degree of certainty about each number's value and avoid false precision is to round each measurement to a certain number of digits, called significant digits , which are implied to be accurate. For example, a person's height measured with a tape measure might only be precisely known to the nearest centimeter, so should be presented as 1.62 meters rather than 1.6217 meters. If converted to imperial units, this quantity should be rounded to 64 inches or 63.8 inches rather than 63.7795 inches, to clearly convey
12264-576: The desired level of accuracy. The Taylor series or the continued fraction method can be utilized to calculate logarithms. The decimal fraction notation is a special way of representing rational numbers whose denominator is a power of 10. For instance, the rational numbers 1 10 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{10}}} , 371 100 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {371}{100}}} , and 44 10000 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {44}{10000}}} are written as 0.1, 3.71, and 0.0044 in
12410-652: The distinction between the natural and the whole numbers by including 0 in the set of natural numbers. The set of integers encompasses both positive and negative whole numbers. It has the symbol Z {\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} } and can be expressed as { . . . , − 2 , − 1 , 0 , 1 , 2 , . . . } {\displaystyle \{...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...\}} . Based on how natural and whole numbers are used, they can be distinguished into cardinal and ordinal numbers . Cardinal numbers, like one, two, and three, are numbers that express
12556-621: The early 19th century, Europe had largely abandoned Latin as a scholarly language (most scientific studies and scholarly publications are printed in English), but a variety of fields still use Latin terminology as the norm. By tradition, it is still common in some fields to name new discoveries in Latin. And because Western science became dominant during the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of Latin names in many scholarly fields has gained worldwide acceptance, at least when European languages are being used for communication. Arithmetic Arithmetic
12702-475: The effect of the digits' positions, the numeral 532 differs from the numerals 325 and 253 even though they have the same digits. Another positional numeral system used extensively in computer arithmetic is the binary system , which has a radix of 2. This means that the first digit is multiplied by 2 0 {\displaystyle 2^{0}} , the next digit by 2 1 {\displaystyle 2^{1}} , and so on. For example,
12848-401: The end of his life, which eventually developed into edema . He died on 1 or 2 July 1566. Many popular authors have retold apocryphal legends about his life. In the years since the publication of his Les Prophéties , Nostradamus has attracted many supporters, who, along with some of the popular press, credit him with having accurately predicted many major world events. Academic sources reject
12994-408: The exponent is a natural number then exponentiation is the same as repeated multiplication, as in 2 4 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 {\displaystyle 2^{4}=2\times 2\times 2\times 2} . Roots are a special type of exponentiation using a fractional exponent. For example, the square root of a number is the same as raising the number to
13140-458: The exponent. For example, 5 2 3 = 5 2 3 {\displaystyle 5^{\frac {2}{3}}={\sqrt[{3}]{5^{2}}}} . The first operation can be completed using methods like repeated multiplication or exponentiation by squaring. One way to get an approximate result for the second operation is to employ Newton's method , which uses a series of steps to gradually refine an initial guess until it reaches
13286-421: The field of numerical calculations. When understood in a wider sense, it also includes the study of how the concept of numbers developed, the analysis of properties of and relations between numbers, and the examination of the axiomatic structure of arithmetic operations. Arithmetic is closely related to number theory and some authors use the terms as synonyms. However, in a more specific sense, number theory
13432-483: The first number with the reciprocal of the second number. This means that the numerator and the denominator of the second number change position. For example, 3 5 : 2 7 = 3 5 ⋅ 7 2 = 21 10 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{5}}:{\tfrac {2}{7}}={\tfrac {3}{5}}\cdot {\tfrac {7}{2}}={\tfrac {21}{10}}} . Unlike integer arithmetic, rational number arithmetic
13578-539: The future in part with the aid of comparative horoscopy. Hence the many predictions involving ancient figures such as Sulla , Gaius Marius , Nero , and others, as well as his descriptions of "battles in the clouds" and "frogs falling from the sky". Astrology itself is mentioned only twice in Nostradamus's Preface and 41 times in the Centuries themselves, but more frequently in his dedicatory Letter to King Henry II . In
13724-502: The integer 1, called the numerator, by the integer 2, called the denominator. Other examples are 3 4 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{4}}} and 281 3 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {281}{3}}} . The set of rational numbers includes all integers, which are fractions with a denominator of 1. The symbol of the rational numbers is Q {\displaystyle \mathbb {Q} } . Decimal fractions like 0.3 and 25.12 are
13870-465: The largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today. Feeling vulnerable to opposition on religious grounds, he devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using " Virgilianised " syntax, word games and a mixture of other languages such as Greek , Italian, Latin , and Provençal . For technical reasons connected with their publication in three instalments (the publisher of the third and last instalment seems to have been unwilling to start it in
14016-515: The last quatrain of his sixth century he specifically attacks astrologers. His historical sources include easily identifiable passages from Livy , Suetonius ' The Twelve Caesars , Plutarch and other classical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Jean Froissart . Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat 's Livre de l'estat et mutations des temps of 1549–50. One of his major prophetic sources
14162-493: The left. This process is repeated until all digits have been added. Other methods used for integer additions are the number line method, the partial sum method, and the compensation method. A similar technique is utilized for subtraction: it also starts with the rightmost digit and uses a "borrow" or a negative carry for the column on the left if the result of the one-digit subtraction is negative. A basic technique of integer multiplication employs repeated addition. For example,
14308-458: The leftmost last significant decimal place among the summands, and by rounding the result of multiplying or dividing two or more quantities to the least number of significant digits among the factors. (See Significant figures § Arithmetic .) More sophisticated methods of dealing with uncertain values include interval arithmetic and affine arithmetic . Interval arithmetic describes operations on intervals . Intervals can be used to represent
14454-470: The light of later events, in this case as though it presaged the known peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Persia of that year; Egypt was also an important Ottoman territory at this time. Similarly, Nostradamus's notorious "1999" prophecy at X.72 (see Nostradamus in popular culture ) describes no event that commentators have succeeded in identifying either before or since, other than by twisting
14600-492: The logarithm base 10 of 1000 is 3. The logarithm of x {\displaystyle x} to base b {\displaystyle b} is denoted as log b ( x ) {\displaystyle \log _{b}(x)} , or without parentheses, log b x {\displaystyle \log _{b}x} , or even without the explicit base, log x {\displaystyle \log x} , when
14746-464: The middle of a "Century," or book of 100 verses), the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not survived in any extant edition. The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Prophéties (The Prophecies), received a mixed reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite evidently thought otherwise. Catherine de' Medici , wife of King Henry II of France ,
14892-407: The multiplicand is a natural number then multiplication is the same as repeated addition, as in 2 × 3 = 2 + 2 + 2 {\displaystyle 2\times 3=2+2+2} . Division is the inverse of multiplication. In it, one number, known as the dividend, is split into several equal parts by another number, known as the divisor. The result of this operation is called
15038-433: The multiplicand, are combined into a single number called the product . The symbols of multiplication are × {\displaystyle \times } , ⋅ {\displaystyle \cdot } , and *. Examples are 2 × 3 = 6 {\displaystyle 2\times 3=6} and 0.3 ⋅ 5 = 1.5 {\displaystyle 0.3\cdot 5=1.5} . If
15184-484: The natural numbers is N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } . The whole numbers are identical to the natural numbers with the only difference being that they include 0. They can be represented as { 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , . . . } {\displaystyle \{0,1,2,3,4,...\}} and have the symbol N 0 {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} _{0}} . Some mathematicians do not draw
15330-465: The next forty years, which contained both transcriptions and translations, with brief commentaries. This was followed in 1961 (reprinted in 1982) by Edgar Leoni's Nostradamus and His Prophecies . After that came Erika Cheetham 's The Prophecies of Nostradamus , incorporating a reprint of the posthumous 1568 edition, which was reprinted, revised and republished several times from 1973 onwards, latterly as The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus . This served as
15476-484: The notion that Nostradamus had any genuine supernatural prophetic abilities and maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are the result of (sometimes deliberate) misinterpretations or mistranslations. These academics also argue that Nostradamus's predictions are characteristically vague, meaning they could be applied to virtually anything, and are useless for determining whether their author had any real prophetic powers. Nostradamus
15622-512: The number 1 is continuously added. Subtraction is the inverse of addition. In it, one number, known as the subtrahend, is taken away from another, known as the minuend. The result of this operation is called the difference. The symbol of subtraction is − {\displaystyle -} . Examples are 14 − 8 = 6 {\displaystyle 14-8=6} and 45 − 1.7 = 43.3 {\displaystyle 45-1.7=43.3} . Subtraction
15768-430: The number 13 is written as 1101 in the binary notation, which stands for 1 ⋅ 2 3 + 1 ⋅ 2 2 + 0 ⋅ 2 1 + 1 ⋅ 2 0 {\displaystyle 1\cdot 2^{3}+1\cdot 2^{2}+0\cdot 2^{1}+1\cdot 2^{0}} . In computing, each digit in the binary notation corresponds to one bit . The earliest positional system
15914-411: The omnibus edition that was published after his death in 1568. This version contains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries". Given printing practices at the time (which included type-setting from dictation), no two editions turned out to be identical, and it is relatively rare to find even two copies that are exactly the same. Certainly there
16060-543: The original editions of 1555 and 1557 discovered by Chomarat and Benazra, together with the unearthing of much original archival material revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus did not fit the documented facts. The academics revealed that not one of the claims just listed was backed up by any known contemporary documentary evidence. Most of them had evidently been based on unsourced rumours relayed as fact by much later commentators, such as Jaubert (1656), Guynaud (1693) and Bareste (1840); on modern misunderstandings of
16206-677: The original names. Examples of Latinised names for countries or regions are: Latinisation is a common practice for scientific names . For example, Livistona , the name of a genus of palm trees, is a Latinisation of Livingstone . During the age of the Roman Empire , translation of names into Latin (in the West) or Greek (in the East) was common. Additionally, Latinised versions of Greek substantives , particularly proper nouns , could easily be declined by Latin speakers with minimal modification of
16352-627: The original word. During the medieval period , after the Empire collapsed in Western Europe , the main bastion of scholarship was the Roman Catholic Church , for which Latin was the primary written language. In the early medieval period, most European scholars were priests and most educated people spoke Latin, and as a result, Latin became firmly established as the scholarly language for the West. By
16498-547: The power of 1 2 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}} and the cube root of a number is the same as raising the number to the power of 1 3 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{3}}} . Examples are 4 = 4 1 2 = 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {4}}=4^{\frac {1}{2}}=2} and 27 3 = 27 1 3 = 3 {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{3}]{27}}=27^{\frac {1}{3}}=3} . Logarithm
16644-418: The precision of the measurement. When a number is written using ordinary decimal notation, leading zeros are not significant, and trailing zeros of numbers not written with a decimal point are implicitly considered to be non-significant. For example, the numbers 0.056 and 1200 each have only 2 significant digits, but the number 40.00 has 4 significant digits. Representing uncertainty using only significant digits
16790-414: The product of 3 × 4 {\displaystyle 3\times 4} can be calculated as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 {\displaystyle 3+3+3+3} . A common technique for multiplication with larger numbers is called long multiplication . This method starts by writing the multiplier above the multiplicand. The calculation begins by multiplying the multiplier only with
16936-640: The prominent physician Louis Serre in his fight against a major plague outbreak in Marseille , and then tackled further outbreaks of disease on his own in Salon-de-Provence and in the regional capital, Aix-en-Provence . Finally, in 1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which exists today, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children—three daughters and three sons. Between 1556 and 1567 he and his wife acquired
17082-411: The quantity of objects. They answer the question "how many?". Ordinal numbers, such as first, second, and third, indicate order or placement in a series. They answer the question "what position?". A number is rational if it can be represented as the ratio of two integers. For instance, the rational number 1 2 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}} is formed by dividing
17228-441: The ratio of two integers. They are often required to describe geometric magnitudes. For example, if a right triangle has legs of the length 1 then the length of its hypotenuse is given by the irrational number 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}} . π is another irrational number and describes the ratio of a circle 's circumference to its diameter . The decimal representation of an irrational number
17374-460: The regular trivium of grammar , rhetoric and logic rather than the later quadrivium of geometry , arithmetic , music , and astronomy / astrology ), he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors during an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon, Nostradamus, by his own account, traveled the countryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal remedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary , he entered
17520-534: The relations and laws between them. Some of the main branches of modern number theory include elementary number theory , analytic number theory , algebraic number theory , and geometric number theory . Elementary number theory studies aspects of integers that can be investigated using elementary methods. Its topics include divisibility , factorization , and primality . Analytic number theory, by contrast, relies on techniques from analysis and calculus. It examines problems like how prime numbers are distributed and
17666-556: The restaurant La Brocherie ) but re-interred during the French Revolution in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where his tomb remains to this day. In The Prophecies Nostradamus compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. The first installment was published in 1555 and contained 353 quatrains . The third edition, with three hundred new quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558, but now survives as only part of
17812-404: The result by using several one-digit operations in a row. For example, in the method addition with carries , the two numbers are written one above the other. Starting from the rightmost digit, each pair of digits is added together. The rightmost digit of the sum is written below them. If the sum is a two-digit number then the leftmost digit, called the "carry", is added to the next pair of digits to
17958-406: The rightmost digit of the multiplicand and writing the result below, starting in the rightmost column. The same is done for each digit of the multiplicand and the result in each case is shifted one position to the left. As a final step, all the individual products are added to arrive at the total product of the two multi-digit numbers. Other techniques used for multiplication are the grid method and
18104-418: The same denominator then they can be added by adding their numerators and keeping the common denominator. For example, 2 7 + 3 7 = 5 7 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {2}{7}}+{\tfrac {3}{7}}={\tfrac {5}{7}}} . A similar procedure is used for subtraction. If the two numbers do not have the same denominator then they must be transformed to find
18250-430: The second case almost literally) in his first two verses, the first of which is appended to this article. While it is true that Nostradamus claimed in 1555 to have burned all of the occult works in his library, no one can say exactly what books were destroyed in this fire. Only in the 17th century did people start to notice his reliance on earlier, mainly classical sources. Nostradamus's reliance on historical precedent
18396-529: The subjective nature of these interpretations, no two of them completely agree on what Nostradamus predicted, whether for the past or for the future. Many supporters do agree, for example, that he predicted the Great Fire of London , the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and of Adolf Hitler , both world wars , and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Popular authors frequently claim that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at
18542-437: The symbols I, V, X, L, C, D, M as its basic numerals to represent the numbers 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1000. A numeral system is positional if the position of a basic numeral in a compound expression determines its value. Positional numeral systems have a radix that acts as a multiplicand of the different positions. For each subsequent position, the radix is raised to a higher power. In the common decimal system, also called
18688-418: The texts, whether with the aid of anagrams, numerical codes, graphs or otherwise. An additional indictment is found in a connection to Nazi propaganda. Goebbels reportedly adduced some of Nostradamus' work to be Third Reich references. This allegedly was done to make it look like the 1,000-year triumphant reign of the German people that was expected under Nazism had been prophesied by Nostradamus. In particular,
18834-732: The time of each of their books' publication, such as the Apollo Moon landing in 1969, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. This 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre. Possibly the first of these books to become popular in English was Henry C. Roberts' The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during
18980-423: The translator believed they were supposed to refer (or vice versa). None of them were based on the original editions: Roberts had based his writings on that of 1672, Cheetham and Hogue on the posthumous edition of 1568. Even Leoni accepted on page 115 that he had never seen an original edition, and on earlier pages, he indicated that much of his biographical material was unsourced. None of this research and criticism
19126-749: The true meanings of the ancient Egyptian script, which was not correctly deciphered until Champollion in the 19th century. Since his death, only the Prophecies have continued to be popular, but in this case they have been quite extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have appeared in that time, together with over 2,000 commentaries. Their persistence in popular culture seems to be partly because their vagueness and lack of dating make it easy to quote them selectively after every major dramatic event and retrospectively claim them as "hits". Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology —the astrological 'judgment', or assessment, of
19272-454: The words to fit whichever of the many contradictory happenings they claim as "hits". Moreover, no quatrain suggests, as is often claimed by books and films on the alleged Mayan Prophecy , that the world would end in December 2012. In his preface to the Prophecies , Nostradamus himself stated that his prophecies extend "from now to the year 3797"—an extraordinary date which, given that the preface
19418-568: Was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by the Inquisition , but neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he would have been in danger only if he had practised magic to support them. In 1538 he came into conflict with the Church in Agen after an Inquisitor visited the area looking for anti-Catholic views. His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 was solely because he had violated
19564-661: Was born on either 14 or 21 December 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence , Provence , France, where his claimed birthplace still exists, and baptized Michel. He was one of at least nine children of notary Jaume (or Jacques) de Nostredame and Reynière, granddaughter of Pierre de Saint-Rémy who worked as a physician in Saint-Rémy. Jaume's family had originally been Jewish , but his father, Cresquas, a grain and money dealer based in Avignon , had converted to Catholicism around 1459–60, taking
19710-735: Was developed by ancient Babylonians and had a radix of 60. Arithmetic operations are ways of combining, transforming, or manipulating numbers. They are functions that have numbers both as input and output. The most important operations in arithmetic are addition , subtraction , multiplication , and division . Further operations include exponentiation , extraction of roots , and logarithm . If these operations are performed on variables rather than numbers, they are sometimes referred to as algebraic operations . Two important concepts in relation to arithmetic operations are identity elements and inverse elements . The identity element or neutral element of an operation does not cause any change if it
19856-646: Was discovered. He first married in 1531, but his wife and two children died in 1534 during another plague outbreak. He worked against the plague alongside other doctors before remarrying to Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children. He wrote an almanac for 1550 and, as a result of its success, continued writing them for future years as he began working as an astrologer for various wealthy patrons. Catherine de' Medici became one of his foremost supporters. His Les Prophéties , published in 1555, relied heavily on historical and literary precedent , and initially received mixed reception. He suffered from severe gout toward
20002-620: Was evidently the Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a range of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius , the Tiburtine Sibyl , Joachim of Fiore , Savonarola and others (his Preface contains 24 biblical quotations, all but two in the order used by Savonarola). This book had enjoyed considerable success in the 1520s, when it went through half a dozen editions, but did not sustain its influence, perhaps owing to its mostly Latin text (mixed with ancient Greek and modern French and Provençal), Gothic script and many difficult abbreviations. Nostradamus
20148-703: Was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating the date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers. In 2000, Li Hongzhi claimed that the 1999 prophecy at X.72 was a prediction of the Chinese Falun Gong persecution which began in July 1999, leading to an increased interest in Nostradamus among Falun Gong members. From the 1980s onward, an academic reaction set in, especially in France. The publication in 1983 of Nostradamus' private correspondence and, during succeeding years, of
20294-506: Was followed by a much shorter codicil . On the evening of 1 July, he is alleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead, lying on the floor next to his bed and a bench (Presage 141 [originally 152] for November 1567 , as posthumously edited by Chavigny to fit what happened). He was buried in the local Franciscan chapel in Salon (part of it now incorporated into
20440-520: Was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus , which included extracts from Michael Psellos 's De daemonibus , and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum ( Concerning the mysteries of Egypt ), a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus , a 4th-century Neo-Platonist . Latin versions of both had recently been published in Lyon , and extracts from both are paraphrased (in
20586-471: Was not only a diviner , but a professional healer. It is known that he wrote at least two books on medical science. One was an extremely free translation (or rather a paraphrase) of The Protreptic of Galen ( Paraphrase de C. GALIEN, sus l'Exhortation de Menodote aux estudes des bonnes Artz, mesmement Medicine ), and in his so-called Traité des fardemens (basically a medical cookbook containing, once again, materials borrowed mainly from others), he included
20732-475: Was one of Nostradamus's greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded, but by the time of his death in 1566, Queen Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, the young King Charles IX of France . Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he
20878-547: Was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French, which may explain why they are credited to him. Modern views of plagiarism did not apply in the 16th century; authors frequently copied and paraphrased passages without acknowledgement, especially from the classics. The latest research suggests that he may in fact have used bibliomancy for this—randomly selecting a book of history or prophecy and taking his cue from whatever page it happened to fall open at. Further material
21024-620: Was originally known to most of the English-language commentators, by dint of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, the language in which it was written. Hogue was in a position to take advantage of it, but it was only in 2003 that he accepted that some of his earlier biographical material had in fact been apocryphal. Meanwhile, some of the more recent sources listed (Lemesurier, Gruber, Wilson) have been particularly scathing about later attempts by some lesser-known authors and Internet enthusiasts to extract alleged hidden meanings from
21170-555: Was so encouraged by the almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies, as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March. It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent people from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and "psychic" advice from him, though he generally expected his clients to supply
21316-519: Was written in 1555, may have more than a little to do with that 2242 (3797–1555) had recently been proposed by his major astrological source Richard Roussat as a possible date for the end of the world. Additionally, scholars have pointed out that almost all English translations of Nostradamus's quatrains are of extremely poor quality: they seem to display little or no knowledge of 16th-century French, are tendentious , and are sometimes intentionally altered in order to make them fit whatever events to which
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