For over 400 years the prophecies of the controversial French prophet Michel Nostradamus (1503-66) have fascinated people because they project far into the future (A.D. 3797), and because they are open to countless interpretations. Until the publication of this book, however, there was no truly complete translation of the prophecies with even the minimum of scholarly apparatus required. Edgar Leoni’s comprehensive, definitive study not only fills that gap but goes far beyond.
This edition includes parallel texts in English and French of all Nostradamus’s prophecies (arranged in then "centuries," or collections of 100 rhymed quatrains). Also included are explanatory notes, a series of indexes, historical background to the prophecies, a Commentary section, including the most famous — and infamous — interpretations; a critical biography of Nostradamus, his will and personal letters, and bibliographical material on both Nostradamus and his commentators.
Reviewing Leoni’s opus in the American Historical Review, Harvard historian Crane Brinton praised the book’s "meticulous scholarship" and obvious worth to historians, adding that "it also makes surprisingly interesting reading."