He studied at the University of Avignon, but was forced to leave after just over a year when the university closed due to an outbreak of the plague.
Nostradamus's father's family had originally been Jewish, but had converted to Catholic Christianity a generation before he was born. Michel de Nostredame (depending on the source, 14 or 21 December 1503 – 1 or 2 July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, physician and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.
