A series of manuscript prophecies concerning the Papacy, under the title of Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus, a Latin text which assembles portraits of popes and prophecies related to them, [1] circulated from the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century, with prophecies concerning popes from Pope Nicholas III onwards.
The series of some thirty prophecies, based on Greek prototypes, was "most probably conceived in order to influence one of the ongoing papal elections," [2] written in opposition to the Orsini and their candidates.
The mystical series of prophecies, known from their incipit as the Genus nequam prophecies ("the origin of evil"), are derived from the Byzantine Leo Oracles, a series of twelfth-century Byzantine prophecies that foretell a savior-emperor destined to restore unity to the Christian Empire. Their poems and tempera illuminations mix fantasy, the occult, and chronicle in a chronology of the popes. Each prophecy consists of four elements, an enigmatic allegorical text, an emblematic picture, a motto, and an attribution to a pope.
The series was augmented in the fourteenth century with further prophecies, with the incipit Ascende calve ("arise, bald one"), written in imitative continuation of the earlier set, but with more overtly propagandist aims. By the time of the Council of Constance (1414–18), both series were united as the Vaticinia de summis pontificibus and misattributed to the Calabrian mystic Joachim of Flora, thus credited to a pseudo-Joachim. There are some fifty manuscripts of this fuller collection.
The prophecies received numerous printed editions.
Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore, was an Italian Christian theologian, Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to theologian Bernard McGinn, "Joachim of Fiore is the most important apocalyptic thinker of the whole medieval period." The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri is one of the most famous works possibly inspired by his ideas.
The Prophecy of the Popes is a series of 112 short, cryptic phrases in Latin which purport to predict the Catholic popes, beginning with Celestine II. It was first published in 1595 by Benedictine monk Arnold Wion, who attributed the prophecy to Saint Malachy, a 12th-century Archbishop of Armagh.
British Library, Add MS 11848 is an illuminated Carolingian Latin Gospel Book produced at Tours. It contains the Vulgate translation of the four Gospels written on vellum in Carolingian minuscule with Square and Rustic Capitals and Uncials as display scripts. The manuscript has 219 extant folios which measure approximately 330 by 230 mm. The text is written in area of about 205 by 127 mm. In addition to the text of the Gospels, the manuscript contains the letter of St. Jerome to Pope Damasus and of Eusebius of Caesarea to Carpian, along with the Eusebian canon tables. There are prologues and capitula lists before each Gospel. A table of readings for the year was added, probably between 1675 and 1749, to the end of the volume. This is followed by a list of capitula incipits and a word grid which were added in the Carolingian period.
The Joachimites, also known as Joachites, a millenarian group, arose from the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. They based their ideas on the prior works of Joachim of Fiore, though rejecting the Church of their day more strongly than he had. Joachimite beliefs were condemned by the Fourth Council of the Lateran and Joachimite interpretations became popular during the Protestant Reformation, and even influenced some Protestant interpretations. He also divided history into three ages: the ages of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In Christian eschatology, historicism is a method of interpretation of biblical prophecies which associates symbols with historical persons, nations or events. The main primary texts of interest to Christian historicists include apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. It sees the prophecies of Daniel as being fulfilled throughout history, extending from the past through the present to the future. It is sometimes called the continuous historical view. Commentators have also applied historicist methods to ancient Jewish history, to the Roman Empire, to Islam, to the Papacy, to the Modern era, and to the end time.
The Vaticinia Michaelis Nostradami de Futuri Christi Vicarii ad Cesarem Filium D. I. A. Interprete, or Vaticinia Nostradami for short, is a collection of eighty watercolor images compiled as an illustrated codex. A version of the well-known Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus of the 13th–14th century, it was discovered in 1994 by the Italian journalists Enza Massa and Roberto Pinotti in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma in Rome, Italy. The document can be found in the library under the title Fondo Vittorio Emanuele 307.
Eugenius of Palermo was an amiratus (admiral) of the Kingdom of Sicily in the late twelfth century.
The Prophecies of the Nun of Dresden, under the original Italian title of Le profezie della monaca di Dresda, is a novel by Renzo Baschera which takes the form of an essay analyzing several manuscripts purportedly found at the beginning of the 19th century. These manuscripts contain prophecies about the last Popes, the great European dynasties, technological progress, several disasters and the end of time, from the end of the 17th century to the end of the 30th century.
Telesphorus of Cosenza was a name assumed by one of the pseudo-prophets during the time of the Western Schism. As an pseudonymous author of a Latin work Liber de magnis tribulationibus, the name was attached to a 1365 production of the Fraticelli. The Liber was updated to fit the situation in the Schism.
Hugh of Newcastle was a Franciscan theologian and scholastic philosopher, a pupil of Duns Scotus. His origin in Newcastle-upon-Tyne is questioned; he may have been from another place called Neufchâtel.
Guido Terrena, also known as Guido Terreni and Guy de Perpignan, was a Catalan Carmelite canon lawyer and scholastic philosopher.
Prophecy of Merlin, sometimes called The Prophecy of Ambrosius Merlin concerning the Seven Kings, is a 12th-century poem written in Latin hexameters by John of Cornwall, which he claimed was based or revived from a lost manuscript in the Cornish language. The original manuscript is unique and currently held in a codex at the Vatican Library.
The Roman d'Alexandre en prose is one of many medieval "Alexander romances" relating the adventures of Alexander the Great, which were by then greatly elaborated with fantastical additions to the historical accounts. Alexander was one of the medieval "Nine Worthies," and his journeys eastward—and most especially the strange and exotic people and animals he encountered there—were treated in a number of different texts in a variety of genres. Based on the relatively large number of surviving manuscripts, as well as the deluxe quality of many of these productions, the Old French Roman d'Alexandre en prose can be considered the most popular and successful vernacular prose treatment of the legend.
Alexander of Roes was the dean of St. Maria im Kapitol, Cologne, canon law jurist, and author on history and prophecy. He was a member of a patrician Cologne family and was a member of the social group in Rome headed by Cardinal Jacobus de Columna, to whom he dedicated Memoriale...
Marjorie Ethel Reeves, was a British historian and educationalist. She served on several national committees and was a major contributor to the education of history in Britain. She helped create St Anne's College as part of Oxford University in 1952, and she led a revival of interest in the work of Joachim of Fiore.
Thaddeus of Naples was an Italian author who wrote the History of the Desolation and Treading Down of the City of Acre and of the Whole Holy Land, an account of the fall of Acre in May 1291.
The Arabic Sibylline prophecy is a set of Christian apocalyptic texts based on the tradition of the Tiburtine Sibyl. The original version of the prophecy was probably composed in the late 8th century by Melkites in ʿAbbāsid Syria. It is an example of vaticinia ex eventu and was composed "to give encouragement and hope to Christians living under Islamic rule, especially during periods of political instability." The prophecy is possibly the oldest apocalyptic text composed in Arabic.
The Courtenay Compendium is a medieval English manuscript containing a miscellany of historical texts. It contains three blocks of texts. The first concerns British and English history. The second has an oriental focus and contains accounts of Europeans in China, the Crusades, Islam and the rise of the Mongols. The third contains prophecies.
The Oracles of Leo the Wise is a Greek collection of oracles attributed to the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise (886–912). In actuality, the collection was first put together in the twelfth century by an anonymous editor probably working in Constantinople.
