Predicting the future has always been a somewhat dangerous career path, and history is littered with failed attempts to foretell the future. Of course, this has never stopped people trying, and in some cases even re-inventing the source of their predictions to match events of the past.
One such source that has been re-invented numerous times, is Michel de Nostredame. Colloquially known as Nostradamus after the latinisation of his, Nostredame was indeed a writer of predictions. He was also a medical practitioner around the time of the great plague in Europe and is reported to have lost his first wife and children to the disease.
But, it is Nostredame's publication of some 1000 quatrains, or four line poems, reputedly predictions of the future, that secured his reputation as a seer. The book, titled Les Propheties (The Prophecies), comprised groups of 100 quatrains, called 'Centuries' that were purposefully abstract and vague. The book found great favour with the upper class in France around the mid 16th century and secured Nostredame a place in history.
It was, however, modern authors who began creating the more recent Nostradamus phenomenon by writing interpretations of his works in terms of modern day history. Libraries and bookshops are full of such books, most of which included wild fabrications pertaining to his life and background. These books will usually have greatly accurate interpretations of past history, but wholly inaccurate predictions of the future. Such is the benefit of hindsight.
To make matters worse, fake quatrains are also doing the rounds, the most famous of which is the supposed prediction of the 9/11 attacks.
All told, none of his predictions were reported to have been correct at the time, with even the prediction of his own death being modified by his secretary after the fact, in an attempt to maintain credibility.
It just goes to prove that when scientist Niels Bohr once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future," he was providing an accurate prediction after all.
