#6: Nostradamus | The Russian Fortune-Teller from Anastasia

Welcome to Episode 6 of Reddit on Wiki. It doesn't take a prophecy to guess that it's John's turn to present this time around. Speaking of prophecies, we discuss one of the most famous figures in history: Nostradamus.Michel de Nostredame (depending on the source, 14 or 21 December 1503 – 1 or 2 July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus,[a] was a French astrologer, physician and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains[b] allegedly predicting future events. The book was first published in 1555.Nostradamus's father's family had originally been Jewish, but had converted to Catholic Christianity a generation before he 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) was discovered. He first married in 1531, but his wife and two children died in 1534 during another plague outbreak. He fought alongside doctors against the plague 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 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 much of the popular press, credit him with having accurately predicted many major world events.[6][7] Most academic sources reject 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 misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate).[8] These academics 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. They also point out that English translations of his quatrains are almost always of extremely poor quality, based on later manuscripts, produced by authors with little knowledge of sixteenth-century French, and often deliberately mistranslated to make the prophecies fit whatever events the translator believed they were supposed to have predicted.Follow us on social media on Instagram and Twitter @redditonwiki. Follow us as well on major podcast platforms such as Apple, Spotify, Goodpods and Podchaser. Don't forget to leave a 5 star review if you enjoy what you hear. All links here! https://linktr.ee/redditonwiki (https://linktr.ee/redditonwiki)If you want more of us, here are our other hustles/grifts!- Find John and his wife's food TikTok account by searching @travelfats- Find Josh's other podcast by searching Let's Start a Cult wherever you get your podcasts and @let_cult on all social media- Find my other podcast by searching Shots and Thoughts wherever you get your podcasts and @sntpod on all social media Sponsor: https://newsly.me/ (https://newsly.me/) use our promo code W1K12021 for 1-month of premium free!RESOURCEShttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus)<a...