Did Nostradamus make any predictions about 2012?

In order to understand what Nostradamus may or may not have said about the year 2012, it helps to understand the structure of the soothsayer's work. Nostradamus' Centuries consists of hundreds of four-line rhyming verses called quatrains written in French, Greek and Latin, among other languages.

Because Nostradamus lived in an era of intense religious and political persecution, he made sure to use vague language when writing his prophecies. His approach proved to be a wise one. By 1558, Nostradamus had gained favor with Catherine de' Medici, the queen of France, who eventually appointed him court physician [source: History.com]. And like Catherine de' Medici, millions of others have been fascinated by Nostradamus' writings, claiming they've predicted everything from the French Revolution to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

To understand how people have interpreted Nostradamus' writings throughout history, let's examine a translation of a quatrain frequently credited for predicting the Great Fire of London in 1666, courtesy of Sacred-texts:

This quatrain is unique in that Nostradamus specified a number related to the event he describes. Still, while the prophecy has some specifics like a location and what could be a date, terms such as "blood of the just" and "ancient lady" are left open to interpretation, just as Nostradamus intended. Because we can deconstruct his prophecies in so many different ways, they've never been used to predict an event before it has occurred. And since Nostradamus' prophecies are so vague, it's difficult to pin any of them to a particular era, much less a specific year.

For instance, while the quatrain many feel predicted the London fire of 1666 contains the number 66 ("twenty threes the six"), it doesn't specify a century or even that the number 66 is referring to a year at all. Instead, we're left combing through verses after a major event occurs, looking for anything that might apply. Clearly, this makes it difficult to determine whether Nostradamus made any specific predictions about the year 2012 in his famed prophecies. But does his most famous work contain anything that might hint at things to come in the year 2012? And might there be other works by Nostradamus that could give us immediate cause for concern? In the next section, we'll dig into his famous quatrains a little further while examining the evidence surrounding a work some call the lost book of Nostradamus.

In examining what Nostradamus had to say about the year 2012, it helps to understand why some people think 2012 could be a significant or even disastrous year in the first place. The most significant source of speculations comes from the fact that the Mayan's Long Count calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012 [source: NASA]. Some theorize this could be the day the world ends ostensibly from Earth's collision with an asteroid or hidden planet, but the scientific community has found nothing to corroborate their predictions.

So what does "The Centuries" tell us about 2012? It's hard to say. We know that Nostradamus never emphasized the number 2012 in any of his writings, so we're left to comb through quatrains looking for evidence of comets, mass destruction and, perhaps, the end of the world. Using those criteria, we could make the case that Nostradamus did indeed foresee Earth's collision with a comet. Consider this Sacred-texts translation of a quatrain from the fifth volume of "The Centuries":

Could the "it" referenced above be a massive comet destined to destroy human civilization? If so, the phrase "change your fortune" is a wee understatement. Like all of Nostradamus' writings, the prediction is lacking in specifics, but those inclined to believe 2012 is a significant year might consider it further evidence of impending doom lurking just outside our solar system. Similarly ominous prophecies litter Nostradamus' writings, and while it's impossible to say any are specifically about the year 2012, it's also impossible to say with certainty that they aren't.

What's more, some people believe Nostradamus' writings tell only part of the story and that Nostradamus was behind a book of prophetic drawings as well. These drawings -- contained in a version of a book called the "Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus" -- depict burning towers, terrible wars and all manner of celestial strife that, according to some, tie directly into purported Mayan predictions about 2012. But despite their claims, the drawings in the Vaticinia actually date back more than a hundred years before Nostradamus was born [source: Lemesurier]. So why are they attributed to Nostradamus? The confusion stems from a version of the book discovered by Italian journalist Enza Massa that cites Nostradamus as the author, despite the fact that we have no evidence Nostradamus could paint or draw.

With his quatrains rife with ambiguity and his supposed "lost book" being someone else's work entirely, we aren't left with anything suggesting Nostradamus considered the year 2012 to be significant in any way. So on that matter, at least, Nostradamus and the scientific community are on the same page.