Student years of Nostradamus

by admin on Jul.29, 2010, under Nostradamus

At the age of fifteen the young Nostredame entered the University of Avignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a year (when he would have studied the regular trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic, rather than the later quadrivium of geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy/astrology), he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors in the face of an outbreak of the plague. After leaving Avignon, Nostredame (according to his own account) traveled the countryside for eight years from 1521 researching herbal remedies. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, he entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterward when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a “manual trade” expressly banned by the university statutes.^[1] The expulsion document (BIU Montpellier, Register S 2 folio 87) still exists in the faculty library.^[2] However, some of his publishers and correspondents would later call him “Doctor”. After his expulsion, Nostredame continued working, presumably still as an apothecary, and became famous for creating a “rose pill” that supposedly protected against the plague.^[3]

Notes

^ Benazra, R, Espace Nostradamus
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Lemesurier, Peter, The Unknown Nostradamus, 2003
^ Nostradamus, Michel, Traite des fardemens et des confitures, 1555, 1556, 1557