MA ////.]/. i TH : 1 1. si -//:\< v;.v. 



101 



Catherine de' Medicis brought to France as astrologer-royal, was not capable 

 of doing more than compiling prophetical almanacs, and yet his credit at 

 court extended over four reigns. As to Pierre de Nostredame, surnamed 

 Nostradamus, who set up for astronomer and physician, though he had never 

 studied either medicine or astronomy, he merely observed the stars for the 

 purpose of making predictions therefrom, and his mathematical calculations 

 were confined to the composition of horoscopes. He was in great favour 



Fig. 75. Astronomical Sextant for 

 measuring Distances. 



76. Equatorial RingJ or 

 Circles. 



Fac-simile of Copper Engravings in the Book, "Tychonis Brahe Aslronomiae Instaurata; 

 Mechanica" (Noribergse, apnd Levinum Hulsium, 1602, in folio). 



with Charles IX. and the Queen-mother, who loaded him with presents, but 

 he had the prudence to withdraw from the court and live in retirement at 

 Salon, in Provence, where he died in 1566, leaving behind him a great 

 reputation and a large fortune. He did not leave any astronomical work, 

 but merely some collections of pharmaceutical receipts and unintelligible 

 prophecies in rhymed verse, and written in a mystic and barbarous tongue. 

 To discover the true science of astronomy in the sixteenth century, it was 



