Hi there,
Welcome to another edition of the History Edit!
I have ended up having a tiny break due to everything going wrong that could go wrong. For many reasons, from a small son knocking a tooth out in spectacular fashion (on a Sunday!) to a full family dose of Covid, not much writing has been done. However, I have been keeping an eye out for interesting internet tidbits for your viewing pleasure and have had the subject of Nostradamus percolating in my mind for a while.
I’ve been keeping my writing mind sharp by producing a couple of articles for Medium publication The Short Form. Take five minutes and have read about Lenin and War Animals.
In other news, the grey winter around us here in South-West France is beginning to be punctuated by sunny spring days once again. Temperatures have been reaching a balmy 18 degrees, while vibrant daffodils have been bursting open, heralding new life with their yellow trumpets. 🌞
For more about me and my adventures, check out my Instagram here!
Future Predictions
I’ve had a bit of a mild interest in Nostradamus for years, ever since my grandad showed me a book of predictions he was reading when I was a child. Nostradamus also seems to be wheeled out as a side show by the newspapers out whenever a big situation unfolds in the world. For example, there was a couple of recent stories about Nostradamus predicting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I will be writing a more in-depth piece on him for Medium, but in the mean time, who is Nostradamus?
Who dis?
Nostradamus, otherwise known as Michel de Nostredame, was a French astrologer, physician and a man-who-could-see-in-to-the-future type of chap. He was born in The South of France in 1503 to Jewish parents who had converted to Catholicism.
After having only spent a year at the University of Avignon, the 15 year old Nostradamus went off into the world to make his fortune as an apothecary. After eight years he decided to go back to education to become a doctor.
Best laid plans
His plans to become a doctor did not come to fruition as he was expelled from the University of Montpellier for being an apothecary and being vocal in his distrust of doctors.
However, his lack of medical degree didn’t stop him and he set up shop as a physician in Agen. His wife and children had sadly died by 1534 and he went on his way, before settling in Salon-de-Provence in 1547. Here he finally made his name by creating treatments for the plague.
Mystic Meg
It was in 1547 when he began having visions of the future and making his prophecies, which he published in rhyming French quatrains. His published prophecies, Les Prophéties, were popular with the public and appeared to be coming true. This gained him some notoriety, with even the French queen, Catherine de Médici summoning him to court to cast horoscopes.
After a turn as a royal physician, more travelling, and some dabbling in the occult, Nostradamus left this earthly realm in 1566 as a celebrated figure.
Legacy
Nostradamus and his predictions continue to fascinate people to this day. Although vague and tricky to interpret, his visions have been said to have predicted Adolf Hitler’s terrible rise to power, the French Revolution, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, among many others.
Future foretelling may include the dramatic effects of global warming, inflation, and famine on a great scale, the rise of artificial intelligence, and a great, big life-on-Earth-ending asteroid strike.
I think that humans like to have something to cling on to, something to believe in, something to give them hope. It’s why religions exist. But I also think it can go the other way, and they will latch on to something that catches their eye and make them catastrophise.
Also, as I said earlier, sometimes these events are only recognised as having come true when they’ve happened. This makes me think that coincidence and hindsight is more at play here than Nostradamus’ cosmic, mystical powers.
The Monthly Edit
War through the eyes of children
These pictures drawn by Polish children in 1946, vividly bring to life the horrors of the war that they were forced to witness. They were created by children aged 8 to 13 as part of a school project post war to capture their memories.
These horrifying accounts by schoolchildren were recently discovered in the Mausoleum of Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów.
Did medieval people sleep twice a day?
An interesting history of biphasic sleep and why we no longer do it.
Testing Newton’s theory
Last month, Storm Eunice caused havoc across the UK, including at the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge.
The high winds managed to bring down a 68-year-old apple tree. Not just any apple tree, but a tree cloned directly from the tree that inspired Sir Isaac Newton in his discovery of his theory of gravity.
More can be read about the ironic felling here.
A lot of lizards
A bonus link about how many tyrannosauruses roamed the Earth in total.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of the History Edit, especially the added Jeff Goldblum!
Check out more of my writing on Medium and find me on Instagram for a catch-up.
See you soon!