As for the Eight, Ninth and Ten Century, there is reason to believe, that the effect of them doth not begin before the _27 June 1558_. which is the date of his Liminary Epistle to _Henry_ the II. Nevertheless he saith in the same Epistle, that in a writing by it self he will set down the exposition of his Prophecies, beginning the 14 of _March_ 1557. and in the Epistle to _Nostradamus_ his Son, he saith in general that he hath composed Books of Prophecies, each one containing one hundred Stanza’s, without specifying whether he spoke of the seven that he dedicated to him, or of all the others. As for my part, I believe he had made them all in the year 1555. but that he had not yet examined the three last Centuries, according to the Calculation of his Astronomical assertions, as he seemeth to indicate often in his Epistle to _Henry_ II. and to say the truth, I have found some Stanza’s, which were fulfilled before the year 1558. though very few. As for the extent of his Prophecies, it is certain, that it is to the end of the World, as I shall make it appear in the explication of the 48, the 49, and 56. Stanza’s of the first Century, and the 72, 73, and 94. of the tenth, and all according to the Holy Scripture. All these things being premised, we shall proceed to the explication of the Prophecies, setting first the Authors Luminary Epistle to his Son. THE PREFACE TO _Mr._ Michael Nostradamus HIS PROPHECIES, _Ad ~Cæsarem Nostradamum~ Filium vita & Felicitas._ Thy late coming, _Cæsar Nostradamus_, my son, hath caused me to bestow a great deal of time in continual and nocturnal watchings, that I might leave a Memorial of me after my death, to the common benefit of Mankind, concerning the things which the Divine Essence hath revealed to me by Astronomical Revolutions; and since it hath pleased the immortal God, that thou are come late into this World, and canst not say that thy years that are but few, but thy Months are incapable to receive into thy weak understanding, what I am forced to define of futurity, since it is not possible to leave thee in Writing, what might be obliterated by the injury of times, for the Hereditary word of _occult prædictions_ shall be lockt up in my brest, considering also that the events are definitely uncertain, and that all is governed by the power of God, who inspired us not by a Bacchant fury or Lymphatick motion, but by Astronomical affections. _Soli numine Divino afflati præsagiunt & Spiritu Prophetico particularia_: Although I have often foretold long before what hath afterwards come to pass, and in particular Regions, acknowledging all to have been done by Divine Vertue and Inspiration, being willing to hold my peace by reason of the injury, not onely of the present time, but also of the future, and to put them in Writing, because the Kingdoms, Sects, and Regions shall be so Diametrically opposed, that if I should relate what shall happen hereafter, those of the present Reign, Sect, Religion