A manuscript of "The Prophecies" – a collection of prophecies by French physician Michel de Nostredame, the first edition of which appeared in 1555 by the publishing house Mace Bonhomme – which was stolen from a library in Rome, the capital of Italy, and was rediscovered when it was attempted to be put up for auction in Germany, has been returned.
The Latin manuscript, titled "Profetie di Michele Nostradamo," containing the prophecies of Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, had been missing for at least 15 years.
Although the exact date of the theft of the book from the Barnabiti Historical Research Center Library in Rome is not known, it is stated that it had been missing since 2007.
It was determined that the 16th-century manuscript of approximately 500 pages was taken to France after it was stolen, where it was sold at a flea market and then arrived in Germany.
After an auction house in Stuttgart, Germany, put the book up for auction last year, Italy's cultural heritage preservation teams tracked down the manuscript.
A stamp on the book was seen in one of the photos published on the auction house's website. The stamp was included in the Library of the Barnabiti Center for Historical Studies in 1991. It belonged to the Library of Blasi Cairoli del Urbe.
Upon this finding, the Cultural Heritage Conservation Command of the Italian Carabinieri forces contacted the German authorities and requested the return of the artifact. The sale of the book, which was put up for auction with an opening price of 12,000 euros ($12,630), was stopped.
When the examinations in Germany confirmed that the book in question was a manuscript stolen from Italy, the return proceedings began.
The Nostradamus manuscript was finally delivered to the library in Rome last Thursday.
The first English edition of the book, titled "The True Prophecies or Prognostications of Michael Nostradamus, Physician to Henry II, Francis II and Charles IX Kings of France," was published in London by Thomas Ratcliffe and Nathaniel, in the year 1672.
The predictions do not follow chronological coherence and were written combining French, Greek, Latin and Occitan. It is believed that it contains anagrams, and mythological and astrological references, in a subjective language that makes comprehension difficult.
Some scholars claim that this was a resource used by Nostradamus to evade the Holy Inquisition, for fear of being persecuted for heresy.
Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, and Nostradamus gained notoriety for the belief in his ability to predict the future.