← Fame through time1550-1559
The 1550s
Whose working lives fell in the 1550s. 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 1550s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Mary I of England22 decades - 2
Catherine de' Medici22 decades - 3
Teresa of Ávila22 decades - 4
Lady Jane Grey22 decades - 5
Henry II of Francenot measured- - 6
Anne of Cleves4 decades - 7
Selim II18 decades - 8
Edward VI of England0 decades - 9
Pope Sixtus V22 decades - 10
Tintoretto22 decades - 11
Pierre de Ronsard21 decades - 12
Mary of Lorraine15 decades - 13
Philip Neri22 decades - 14
Luís de Camões1 decades - 15
Takeda Shingen0 decades - 16
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany22 decades - 17
Pope Urban VII0 decades - 18
Şehzade Mustafa0 decades - 19
Sigismund II Augustus0 decades - 20
Antoine of Navarre22 decades - 21
Akechi Mitsuhide0 decades - 22
Louise Labé21 decades - 23
Judah Loew ben Bezalel0 decades - 24
Christina of Denmark0 decades - 25
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghleynot measured- - 26
Anna Jagiellon0 decades - 27
Gaspard II de Coligny0 decades - 28
Şehzade Cihangirnot measured- - 29
Ōgimachi0 decades - 30
Peter Canisius7 decades - 31
Margaret of Parma22 decades - 32
Sen no Rikyū0 decades - 33
Francis, Duke of Guisenot measured- - 34
Eleanor of Toledonot measured- - 35
Conrad Gessner1 decades - 36
Lucas Cranach the Younger0 decades - 37
Bayinnaung2 decades - 38
Lord Guildford Dudley9 decades - 39
Imagawa Yoshimoto0 decades - 40
Barbara Radziwiłł0 decades - 41
Maurice of Saxonynot measured- - 42
Pope Innocent IX0 decades - 43
Rani Durgavati1 decades - 44
Diego de Landa19 decades - 45
John Foxe21 decades - 46
Theodore Beza21 decades - 47
Gabriele Falloppio0 decades - 48
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolknot measured- - 49
Margaret of France, Duchess of Berrynot measured- - 50
Gulbadan Begum0 decades - 51
Alessandro Farnesenot measured- - 52
Kılıç Ali Paşanot measured- - 53
Johann Weyer0 decades - 54
Vincenzo Galilei22 decades - 55
Lautaronot measured- - 56
William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg0 decades - 57
Isabella Jagiellonnot measured- - 58
Petrus Ramus9 decades - 59
Joachim du Bellay9 decades - 60
Thomas Gresham22 decades - 61
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés13 decades - 62
Margaret Douglas18 decades - 63
Gülfem Hatunnot measured- - 64
Francisco de Toledo, Count of Oropesa22 decades - 65
Ottavio Farnese22 decades - 66
João Manuel, Prince of Portugalnot measured- - 67
Antonis Mor0 decades - 68
Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennoxnot measured- - 69
Sinan the Great0 decades - 70
Lamoral, Count of Egmontnot measured- - 71
Ulisse Aldrovandi1 decades - 72
Roger Ascham22 decades - 73
Frederick III of the Palatinatenot measured- - 74
Gotthard Kettler20 decades - 75
Li Shizhen7 decades - 76
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk20 decades - 77
Pedro Cieza de León14 decades - 78
Martin Guerre16 decades - 79
Hieronymus Wolf0 decades - 80
Charles, Cardinal de Bourbonnot measured- - 81
Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine0 decades - 82
Sebastian Castellio0 decades - 83
Catherine Carey0 decades - 84
Margaret Leijonhufvudnot measured- - 85
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq0 decades - 86Joseph Nasi17 decades
- 87
Moses Isserlesnot measured- - 88
Marco Antonio Bragadin0 decades - 89
Christophe Plantin22 decades - 90
Mihrimah Sultan0 decades - 91
Blaise de Vigenère0 decades - 92
Shibata Katsuie0 decades - 93
Gaspara Stampa22 decades - 94
Maham Anga0 decades - 95
Charles, Cardinal of Lorrainenot measured- - 96
Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseunot measured- - 97
Matthias Flacius22 decades - 98
Martin Chemnitz22 decades - 99
Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess of Mecklenburgnot measured- - 100
Christoph, Duke of Württemberg18 decades
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.