The importance of the Benoist Rigaud editions is fundamental, particularly for establishing the text of the last three centuries and the new preface, which some scholars have regarded as apocryphal and for which no printed state produced during the author's lifetime is known. As Patrice Guinard explains in his indispensable bibliographical study (Revue française d'histoire du livre, no. 129, New Series, 2008, pp. 9–142), it is here that one finds for the first time the complete corpus of 942 quatrains—the Seventh Century having never been completed—as well as the earliest known versions of Centuries VIII–X and the Preface to Henri II (dated Salon, 27 June 1558), a document of major importance for understanding Nostradamus's chronology and working methods.

“Indeed, the Lyon edition of 1558 and its hypothetical Paris counterpart are now lost, and the so-called 1568 editions, the earliest of which was probably printed approximately two years after Nostradamus's death, constitute the first surviving witnesses to the original text and are probably the most reliable” (Guinard).

History of the printing and rarity: probably printed around 1571, it has recently been designated ‘Edition A’ by Patrice Guinard, who placed it second in his chronology of the editions of Nostradamus issued with the Benoist Rigaud imprint and the date 1568. The Nostradamus scholar Daniel Ruzo did not own a copy, and Guinard was able to locate only six examples, none in North America: Lyon, Bibliothèque Municipale (incomplete); Lyon, Bibliothèque Municipale (Fonds Chomarat); Châteauroux, Bibliothèque Municipale; Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek; Wrocław, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale—plus the copy reproduced in René Troyan's Der Schlüssel zur Welt des Nostradamus (Stammham, Merano, 2003).

The title-pages are adorned with attractive woodcuts. The first depicts the heavens with the sun, moon, and five stars, together with an armillary sphere held by a hand emerging from a cloud, while another hand measures the earth's surface with a compass (Chomarat, woodcut no. 2). The vignette on the second title-page shows Atlas carrying the terrestrial globe against a maritime landscape (Chomarat, woodcut no. 4). Decorative initials, headpieces, and a printer's ornament (Chomarat, no. 17) complete the decoration.

Considerable confusion surrounds these editions. Neither Brunet nor Graesse records them, and Baudrier was the first, in 1897, to provide a brief description of what were probably authentic editions formerly owned by Abbé Hector Rigaux (now untraced). The silence of nineteenth-century bibliography is explained by the absence of 1568-dated copies in Parisian libraries and at the British Museum, "the principal supply centres for sixteenth-century French bibliography" (Guinard). Although more copies surfaced during the twentieth century, matters became even more complicated: incomplete descriptions, incorrect collations, bibliographical inaccuracies, and outright misidentifications. Patrice Guinard painstakingly analyzed the errors and misconceptions that led scholars such as Chomarat, Benazra, Ruzo, Leroy, and Leoni to establish differing descriptions and classifications for the Rigaud editions (eight in total, including two undated issues probably printed between 1591 and 1593).

After comparing the texts of the various editions, Guinard concluded in favour of the priority of Edition X (Guinard, p. 54; Chomarat, 98; Benazra, 10; Ruzo, 20), itself based on the expanded edition published by Antoine du Rosne in 1557 (Centuries I–VII) and on the conjectural 1558 edition (for the three new centuries). Edition X therefore appears to have served as the model for Edition A, the present edition, as demonstrated by the orthographical and typographical corrections identified by the meticulous bibliographer of Nostradamus, whose continually updated website remains an invaluable source of information (http://cura.free.fr).

Sixteenth-century editions of Nostradamus are exceptionally rare, only five copies are known of the dozen editions of the Prophéties recorded between 1555 and 1563: three copies of the first edition (1555: 353 quatrains), two copies of Antoine du Rosne's editions (1557: 640 quatrains), and only about fifteen complete copies, across all editions, of this complete version issued under the name of Benoist Rigaud.

Provenance: 17th century ownership inscription in ink to front flyleaf: "di fran[cesco] Bulgarini," very likely Cardinal Francesco Bulgarini, a member of an ancient and distinguished Roman family; Cesare Campori, 19th century bookplate to the front pastedown.

References: Guinard, p. 51; Chomarat, 96; Benazra, 11; Ruzo, 21. See also Jean-Paul Barbier, Ma bibliothèque poétique, Fourth Part, vol. IV, pp. 445–462, for another edition bearing the same date (Guinard, p. 52; Chomarat, 97). Guinard records six copies in public institutions (one incomplete) and one copy in private hands (not examined).