It has, in MS., on the title-page, "1555 et 1558." M. Bareste says of this edition:
"On prétend qu'elle est de 1558; mais nous ne le pensons pas, car elle a été probablement faite l'année même de la mort de l'auteur, c'est à dire, en 1566."
However, as there is no known edition between 1555, the date of the first, and 1566, this doubtless is the earliest containing the ninth century; and at No. 49. of this century is to be seen the following quatrain:
"Gand et Bruceles marcheront contre Anvers, Sénat de Londres mettront à mort leur Roy; Le sel et vin luy seront à l'envers, Pour eux avoir le regne en desarroy."
I can find no edition of Nostradamus dated 1572; but in the editions of 1605, 1629, 1649, and 1650, the prophecy is given as above, almost letter for letter, so that there can be no doubt it was not first known in that form in 1672. As to the number of this quatrain agreeing with the year of King Charles's death, it is most probably an accident; for out of the nine hundred and odd quatrains composing the twelve centuries (the 7th, 11th, and 12th being imperfect), and which are nearly all regularly numbered, it is, I believe, the only one in which this singularity occurs. On the fly-leaf of a copy of Nostradamus in the Bibliothèque de Ste Geneviève (dated 1568, but really printed in 1649), I found, in an old handwriting, a couplet that may be new to the English admirer of the astrologer:
"Falsa damus cum Nostra damus, nam fallere nostrum est
Et cum nostra damus, non nisi Falsa damus."
If SPERIEND wishes for more information on the subject of the life and works of Nostradamus, I should recommend him to look at the work I have quoted above, which treats very fully on all matters connected with this "vaticinating worthy." It is entitled Nostradamus, par Eugène Bareste: Paris, 1840, and will doubtless be found in the British Museum.
H. C. DE ST. CROIX.
I have an edition of 1605 of these prophecies, Revueës et corrigées sur la coppie imprimée à Lyon, par Benoist Rigaud, 1586, but without place or printer's name. It contains (century nine, stanza 49.), the quatrain quoted by SPERIEND.