Andrei Timotin, Nicolas Arnou (1629-1692), lecteur du Praesagium Mehemetanorum de Bartholomaeus Georgievits
The author analyses a little-known 17th century pseudo-prophetic text about the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Presagio dell’imminente rovina e caduta dell’ Impero Ottomano, printed in Padova in 1684 and reprinted in Venice in 1686. His author is Nicolas Arnou (1629–1692), a Dominican native from Lorraine, professor of metaphysics and theology at the University of Padova. He foresees the victory of the Holy League in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) on the basis of the interpretation of a collection of previous prophecies, among which Praesagium Mehemetanorum by Bartholomæus Georgievits (Antwerp, 1545). Arnou’s exegesis of this famous oracle and his rectification of Georgievits’ interpretation are analysed here in the context of Arnou’s general approach of anti-Ottoman prophecies.