The Riddle of Nostradamus: A Critical Dialogue

by Georges Dumézil

Nostradamus (1503-66) is one of the most controversial writers of the Renaissance and one of the most widely read. Whatever his other accomplishments, he is best remembered as an enigmatic seer, the man who could foretell events, though he could not specify when in the future they would occur. Modern readers tend to view Nostradamus either as a relic from a superstitious age or as an inspired visionary. In this book Georges Dumézil, renowned scholar of myth and religion, takes Nostradamus very seriously indeed. Can one foresee the future, Dumézil asks, and fail to understand it? At the beginning of the nineteenth century, commentators on Nostradamus found in the twentieth quatrain of Nostradamus's Century 9 a bundle of precise details that seemed to predict the arrest of Louis XVI as he fled the French Revolution. Other details in the quatrain remained unexplained. Why was the person described as "le moyne noir"? What did the second verse "Deux parts, vaultorte, Herne, la pierre blanche"? What can scholarship contribute to the understanding of these puzzles? Dumézil explores three a philological and historical study of the text to clarify its enigmas by a deeper investigation of Louis XVI's unsuccessful flight to Varennes; a logical analysis, determining how Nostradamus would have interpreted a view of the eighteenth century from his vantage in the sixteenth; and, finally, a metaphysical inquiry into the status and process of prediction. Written in dialogue form, The Riddle of Nostradamus is one of Dumézil's most arresting works, challenging dogmas, even scholarly ones, and raising sharp questions about how much we want to know, and why. Shunning the usual forms of academic inquiry to probe the grey regions that stretch between knowledge and belief, the book not only studies, but exemplifies, the role of the riddle in discussing portentous events. "This book by Georges Dumézil is about Dumézil -- about his scholarly methods and even about his life. It is a tour de force application of his methodology. As such, it amounts to a brilliant exercise in comparative method and reconstruction. It is easy to speak here of his methods; to speak of his life will be more difficult." -- from the Foreword, by Gregory Nagy

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Georges Dumézil was a French comparative philologist best known for his analysis of sovereignty and power in Proto-Indo-European religion and society. He is considered one of the major contributors to mythography, in particular for his formulation of the trifunctional hypothesis of social class in ancient societies.

Reviews

[gallizio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Da un castello all’altro (sirènes)

[Jönathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Centers on a discussion of the intricacies of Nostradamus quatrains, mentioning the French revolution, the Knights Templar, the assasination of the Merovingian King Childeric, Mithras caps, and perhaps double meanings involving subjects such as Chess and Alchemy.

[Simona Moschini · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'interpretazione di Dumézil della Centuria IX, 20 è affascinante nel suo rompere i diaframmi tra razionalismo dello storico e irrazionalismo del mago cinquecentesco.
Peccato, sul serio, che successivi studi abbiano trovato una soluzione molto più semplice al mistero (v. Chantal Liaroutzos, https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhren_0181-...).

La seconda parte, noiosetta nello svolgimento ma molto più convincente, esplora le ultime parole di Socrate nel Fedone.

Avvertenza: per capire qualcosa di questo libro bisogna conoscere il francese (le traduzioni ci sono ma le ipotesi di Dumézil su Nostradamus si fondano tutte sulle parole) e il greco antico (idem).

[Michele Ferrari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo libro è un saggio di filologia e esegesi di una celeberrima quartina di Nostradamus mascherato però da memoria di alcune discussioni dove i protagonisti non fanno altro che esporre tesi e antitesi, possibilità e errori fino a giungere alla conclusione. Il secondo testo sul significato delle ultime parole di Socrate segue lo stile dei classici dialoghi filosofici seppur trasposti agli inizi del ventesimo secolo. L'autore si è divertito a giocare tra la forma del saggio e quella del romanzo e gli è venuto fuori un gran bel risultato

[M.C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro raro y curioso no apto para todos los paladares. Un sabio como Dumezil (es decir, un autor "serio") analiza en plan algo bromista pero también erudito una cuarteta de Nostradamus que supuestamente anticipó la detención del rey de Francia Luis XVI en Varennes. Es ingenioso pero no va más allá de ser un mero divertimento erudito.

[Bernard Convert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chantal Liaroutzos a ruiné l'interprétation de Dumézil en montrant qu'il ne s'agissait pas du tragique Varennes (en Argonne) mais de celui, plus anodin, du Maine-et-Loire. Dommage. On avait envie d'y croire...

[Tizi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prima opera che leggo di questo brillante storico il quale, dietro le sembianze di uno scritto di finzione, sfodera le armi di una lucidissima filologia e incanta attraverso l'analisi di oscuri segreti.

[Vito Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meraviglioso esempio.

[Lewis Winstanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this whole book just for the epilogue but where he gives his opinion on why Socrates owed asclepius a cock, it was all in all not really worth it in my opinion. Also Nostradamus isn't all that great if you trust Wikipedia