Editing Nostradamus (section)

=== Popular claims ===
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| footer            = Nostradamus's supporters have retrospectively claimed that he predicted major world events, including the [[Great Fire of London]], the French Revolution, the rises of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] and [[Adolf Hitler]], the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], and the [[September 11 attacks]].{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}}{{sfn|Gruber|2003}}
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Many of Nostradamus's supporters believe his prophecies are genuine.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} Owing to the subjective nature of these interpretations, no two of them completely agree on what Nostradamus predicted, whether for the past or for the future.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}} Many supporters do agree, for example, that he predicted the [[Great Fire of London]], the French Revolution, the rise of [[Napoleon]] and of [[Adolf Hitler]],{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|p=36}}{{efn|In several quatrains he mentions the name ''Hister'', although this is the classical name for the Lower Danube, as he himself explains in his ''Presage'' for 1554. Similarly, the expression ''Pau, Nay, Loron''—often interpreted as an anagram of "Napaulon Roy"—refers to three towns in southwestern France near his one-time home.}} both [[world war]]s, and [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|the nuclear destruction]] of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]].{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}}{{sfn|Gruber|2003}} Popular authors frequently claim that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each of their books' publication, such as the [[Apollo 11|Apollo Moon landing]] in 1969, the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]] in 1986, the [[Diana, Princess of Wales#Death|death of Diana, Princess of Wales]] in 1997, and the [[September 11 attacks]] on the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in 2001.{{sfn|Gruber|2003}}<ref name="chal">{{cite web |url = http://www.maar.us/first_century_nostradamus.html |title = CI, Q81 |website = Maar.us |access-date = 20 March 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080924052134/http://www.maar.us/first_century_nostradamus.html |archive-date = 24 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|pp=144–148}}

Possibly the first of these books to become popular in English was Henry C. Roberts' ''The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus'' of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during the next forty years, which contained both transcriptions and translations, with brief commentaries. This was followed in 1961 (reprinted in 1982) by Edgar Leoni's ''Nostradamus and His Prophecies''. After that came [[Erika Cheetham]]'s ''The Prophecies of Nostradamus'', incorporating a reprint of the posthumous 1568 edition, which was reprinted, revised and republished several times from 1973 onwards, latterly as ''The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus''. This served as the basis for the documentary ''[[The Man Who Saw Tomorrow]]'' and both did indeed mention possible generalised future attacks on New York (via [[nuclear weapon]]s), though not specifically on the World Trade Center or on any particular date.<ref>See, for example, Cheetham, Erika, ''The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus'', Futura, 1990, p. 373</ref>

A two-part translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's ''Nostradamus: historien et prophète'' was published in 1980, and John Hogue has published a number of books on Nostradamus from about 1987, including ''Nostradamus and the Millennium: Predictions of the Future'', ''Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies'' (1999) and ''Nostradamus: A Life and Myth'' (2003). In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be able to contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him "interpreting" his own verse X.6 (a prediction specifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nîmes and people taking refuge in its ''collosse'', or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the ''Arènes'') as a prediction of an undated ''attack on the Pentagon'', despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter to King Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2003|p=145}}

With the exception of Roberts, these books and their many popular imitators were almost unanimous not merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy but also in inventing intriguing aspects of his purported biography: that he had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of [[Issachar]]; he had been educated by his grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of [[Rene I of Naples|Good King René]] of [[Provence]]; he had attended [[Montpellier]] University in 1525 to gain his first degree; after returning there in 1529, he had successfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there, until his views became too unpopular; he had supported the [[Heliocentrism|heliocentric]] view of the universe; he had travelled to the Habsburg Netherlands, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in the course of his travels, he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying future Pope, [[Sixtus V]], who was then only a seminary monk. He is credited with having successfully cured the [[Bubonic plague|Plague]] at [[Aix-en-Provence]] and elsewhere; he had engaged in [[scrying]], using either a magic mirror or a bowl of water; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter 1554; having published the first installment of his ''Prophéties'', he had been summoned by Queen [[Catherine de' Medici]] to Paris in 1556 specifically in order to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husband [[King Henri II]] would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at [[Blois]]; he had bequeathed to his son a "lost book" of his own prophetic paintings;{{efn|Actually the 13th–14th century ''[[Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus]]'' in a misascribed version sometimes referred to as the ''[[Vaticinia Nostradami]]''}} he had been buried standing up; and he had been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of his disinterment.{{sfn|Lemesurier|2010|pp=26–45}} This was first recorded by [[Samuel Pepys]] as early as 1667, long before the French Revolution. Pepys records in his celebrated [[Diary of Samuel Pepys|diary]] a legend that, before his death, Nostradamus made the townsfolk swear that his grave would never be disturbed; but that 60 years later his body was exhumed, whereupon a brass plaque was found on his chest correctly stating the date and time when his grave would be opened and cursing the exhumers.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1667/02/03/ |title = Sunday 3 February 1666/67 |website = The Diary of Samuel Pepys |date = 3 February 2010 |access-date = 11 September 2019 |archive-date = 28 February 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200228103358/https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1667/02/03/ |url-status = live }}</ref>

In 2000, [[Li Hongzhi]] claimed that the 1999 prophecy at X.72 was a prediction of the [[Persecution of Falun Gong|Chinese Falun Gong persecution]] which began in July 1999, leading to an increased interest in Nostradamus among [[Falun Gong]] members.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manderson |first1=Lenore |last2=Smith |first2=Wendy |last3=Tomlinson |first3=Matt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH_hg_zZQtEC&pg=PA44 |title=Flows of Faith: Religious Reach and Community in Asia and the Pacific |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=44 |year=2012 |isbn=978-9400729322 |access-date=19 October 2020 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228154842/https://books.google.com/books?id=YH_hg_zZQtEC&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>