Nostradamus [key], 1503–66, French astrologer and physician, whose real name was Michel de Nostredame. He is reputed to have effected remarkable cures during outbreaks of the plague in S France. His rhymed prophecies under the title Centuries (1555) gained him the favor of the French court. Obscure and symbolic, the predictions have been subject to many interpretations.
See E. Cheetham, ed. and tr., Prophecies on World Events by Nostradamus (1974); R. Prévost, Nostradamus, Myth and Reality (1999).
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