CHAVIGNY Jean-Aimé de Commentaires du Sr de Chavigny Beaunois sur les Centuries et Prognostications de feu M. Michel de Nostradamus.

USTC 12761 ; Brunet, I, col. 1828 ; Caillet, n° 2304 ; Chomarat-Laroche, Bibliographie Nostradamus, n° 160 ; Benazra, Répertoire chronologique nostradamique, pp. 142-143.

First edition of this fundamental work for Nostradamist studies.

Poet, astrologer and doctor, Jean-Aimé de Chavigny (1524-1604) had left his home town of Beaune to settle in Salon-de-Provence with Nostradamus, whom he assisted until his death as a disciple and friend. Chavigny met Nostradamus in Salon in the summer of 1560, at the age of 27. On the following 1 September, while in Aix, he wrote to Nostradamus to thank him for his welcome and also for having kindly drawn up his birth chart. After a few exchanges of letters, Chevigny returned to Salon the following summer and became the astrologer’s private secretary, employed by the latter partly because of his terrible handwriting.

Nostradamus (1503-1566) is presented here through the magnifying glass of his secretary, who in this extremely rare little work wanted not only to pay tribute to the author of the famous Centuries, but also to sweep away all the slander that flourished against his master from the time of his death.

‘Later in his life several of his astrological clients complained of his execrable hand. This was partly why he eventually resorted to employing a secretary, Chavigny’ (Wilson, The man Behind the Prophecies, p. 18).

This extremely rare work begins with a ‘”brief discours sur la vie de M. Michel de Nostre Dame”, the first biography of the astrologer. It is followed by commentaries – of which there are 347 – on Nostradame’s prophecies ‘advenues depuis l’an 1534 jusqu’à présent’. The last 6 leaves contain the omens ‘”advenement à la couronne de France, de très illustre et très généraux prince, Henry de Bourbon, Roi de Navarre”.

The privilege of this edition was shared between the booksellers Gilles Robinot and Anthoine du Brueil. The title bears Robinot’s large printer’s mark.

A very rare work of which we have only been able to find one copy at public sale (very damaged and with a facsimile leaf).

A fine copy, old angular restoration of paper in D3, spine faded.

Provenance: Antoine-Bernard Caillard (1737-1807 ; sale Paris, 1810, n° 603, 4 livres 10 sols) – Jean Blondelet (his signature on the lower fly-leaf).