From his predictions about life and death in the French court of Catherine de’ Medici to his uncannily suggestive preconceptions of World War II, Michel de Nostradamus has aroused continual fascination-and commercialization-in the West. Today, many search his elliptical “centuries”- or collected verses-for new truths about 9/11 and End Times, while supermarket tabloids routinely falsify and exploit his pronouncements. What is the difference between prophecy and prediction, and how has it led to a misuse of the ideas of Nostradamus, as well as those of other post-biblical prognosticators? What is the nature of the oracular tradition in the West-stretching back to the oracle at Delphi-and how can Nostradamus be understood from this perspective? Smoley presents a fresh, scholarly and literal translation of Nostradamus’s Middle French, together with a detailed commentary on Nostradamus’s key quatrains, with a sharp eye toward the political and social events of Nostradamus’ era, allowing readers to make their own determination as to the passages’ historical references and accuracy