Friday, December 23, 2011

1570, 1580, 1590, and counting

Earlier I mentioned a prophetic list of events for the years 1570-80 that turns up in various forms all over Europe as late as the nineteenth century. All the attestations I found at first were modern editions, mostly of manuscript sources. I still don't know what the prophecy is called, or remember where I first saw it, but I have now come across some printed sources.
  • It shows up as part of the prophecy of Gregor Jordan (itself an unresolved puzzle) in 1591, with predictions for 1591-1600. The BSB has a facsimile (of VD16 ZV 6626) here.
  • It also appears as Eine merckwürdige Prophezeyung / Welche zu Neapolis in eines Benedictiner-Münchs-Grabe in einer bleyern Capsel gefunden worden, published in 1697, with predictions for 1646-1990 in Latin with German translation. A facsimile of this edition, VD17 3:609742P, is available here.
  • A note in a nineteenth-century auction catalog suggests that the prophecy was included in Georg Ursinus's 1576 work on eclipses, VD16 ZV 21550, but I haven't seen a copy.

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