← Fame through time1500-1509
The 1500s
Whose working lives fell in the 1500s. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1500s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Niccolò Machiavelli22 decades - 2
Nicolaus Copernicus8 decades - 3
Vasco da Gama22 decades - 4
Albrecht Dürer22 decades - 5
Erasmusnot measured- - 6
Guru Nanak13 decades - 7
Selim I11 decades - 8
Cesare Borgia22 decades - 9
Pope Paul IIInot measured- - 10
Moctezuma II1 decades - 11
Elizabeth of Yorknot measured- - 12
Thomas Wolsey21 decades - 13
Bartolomeu Dias3 decades - 14
Philip I of Castile3 decades - 15
Arthur, Prince of Wales5 decades - 16
James IV of Scotland7 decades - 17
Lucas Cranach the Elder6 decades - 18
Ludovico Ariosto22 decades - 19
Manuel I of Portugal0 decades - 20
Pedro Álvares Cabral0 decades - 21
Wang Yangming8 decades - 22
Krishnadevaraya7 decades - 23
Piri Reis4 decades - 24
Yeonsangun of Joseonnot measured- - 25
Frederick I of Denmark0 decades - 26
Sigismund I the Old0 decades - 27
Isabella d'Estenot measured- - 28
John Fisher22 decades - 29
Andrea Doria22 decades - 30
Piero the Unfortunate0 decades - 31
Martin Waldseemüller10 decades - 32
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury0 decades - 33
Pietro Bembo22 decades - 34
Alonso de Ojeda22 decades - 35
Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin1 decades - 36
Vittore Carpaccio22 decades - 37
Diego Velazquez de Cuéllar10 decades - 38
Fernando de Rojas21 decades - 39
Hongzhi Emperor0 decades - 40
Pánfilo de Narváez16 decades - 41
Angela Merici22 decades - 42
Giulia Farnese20 decades - 43
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolknot measured- - 44
Basil Fool for Christ19 decades - 45
Johann Tetzel20 decades - 46
Hans Holbein the Elder5 decades - 47
Bianca Maria Sforza0 decades - 48
György Dózsa0 decades - 49
Tang Yin2 decades - 50
Juan Díaz de Solís15 decades - 51
Georg von Frundsberg21 decades - 52
Quentin Matsys9 decades - 53
Catherine of Navarre0 decades - 54
John, Elector of Saxony22 decades - 55
Thomas Cajetan0 decades - 56
Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal2 decades - 57
Juan de Zumárraga21 decades - 58
Anne of Foix-Candalenot measured- - 59
Fra Bartolomeo22 decades - 60
Oruç Reis0 decades - 61
Dayan Khan1 decades - 62
Giovanni Sforza22 decades - 63
John III of Navarre0 decades - 64
George, Duke of Saxony15 decades - 65
Gil Vicente21 decades - 66
Rodrigo de Triana19 decades - 67
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua18 decades - 68
Cecilia Gallerani0 decades - 69
Wen Zhengmingnot measured- - 70
Kunigunde of Austria0 decades - 71
Anacaona12 decades - 72
Isabella of Naples0 decades - 73
Philibert II, Duke of Savoy0 decades - 74
John Corvinus0 decades - 75
Purandara Dasa0 decades - 76
Henry IV19 decades - 77
Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somersetnot measured- - 78
Cecily of York0 decades - 79
Francisco de Bobadilla0 decades - 80
Gonzalo Guerrero21 decades - 81
Hadım Süleyman Paşanot measured- - 82
Polydore Vergil3 decades - 83
Hans Burgkmair the Elder0 decades - 84
Agostino Chigi22 decades - 85
Ludovico di Varthema8 decades - 86
Alfonso of Aragon12 decades - 87
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro0 decades - 88
Maddalena de' Medici0 decades - 89
Vasco de Quiroga22 decades - 90
Şehzade Ahmednot measured- - 91
Şehzade Korkutnot measured- - 92
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio0 decades - 93
Alfonsina Orsini0 decades - 94
John Colet22 decades - 95
Ashikaga Yoshitane0 decades - 96
Rodrigo de Bastidas0 decades - 97Scipione del Ferro0 decades
- 98
Tomé Pires0 decades - 99Fernão do Pó0 decades
- 100
Jacques de la Palicenot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.