Vaticinia Nostradami

A postscript by Carthusian librarians states that the book had been presented by one Brother Beroaldus to cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who would later become Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644). A further covering note suggests that the images were by the French seer Nostradamus (1503–1566), and had been sent to Rome by his son César de Nostredame as a gift. There is, however, absolutely no contemporary evidence that Nostradamus himself was either a painter or the author of the work, whose contents in fact date from several centuries before his time—nor, indeed, that he had ever heard of it, given that it did not finally appear in print until after his death. Nevertheless, the highly speculative Italian writer Ottavio Cesare Ramotti, together with the History Channel's The Lost Book of Nostradamus (October 2007), have still made much of the book's supposedly 'Nostradamian' origin. There is a letter by Cèsar de Nostredame (Michel's first son), written to the French scientist Fabri de Peiresc, in which mention is made of several miniatures painted by Cèsar, and of a booklet that was destined as a gift to King Louis XIII in 1629, but there is no evidence whatsoever of any connection between these and the Vaticinia. ==Style==

The images contain symbolic objects, letters, animals, crossings of banners, bugles, crosses, candles, three writing styles, etc., some of which seem to some to form figures similar to Roman numerals, or veiled references to personal names. As suggested by the various added inscriptions, they are supposed to have been inspired by the celebrated papal prophecies of Abbot Joachim of Fiore, a 12th-century Cistercian monk from Calabria. ==Sources==