← Fame through time1400-1499
The 15th century
Whose working lives fell in the 15th century. 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 15th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Christopher Columbus21 decades - 2
Leonardo da Vinci22 decades - 3
Sandro Botticelli22 decades - 4
Girolamo Savonarola22 decades - 5
Pope Julius II22 decades - 6
John Cabot16 decades - 7
Fra Angelico21 decades - 8
Pope Sixtus IV22 decades - 9
Pope Pius II21 decades - 10
Leon Battista Alberti22 decades - 11
Filippo Brunelleschi22 decades - 12
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola22 decades - 13
Pope Martin V5 decades - 14
Piero della Francesca22 decades - 15
Pope Paul II11 decades - 16
Masaccio22 decades - 17
Rita of Cascia19 decades - 18
Luca Pacioli22 decades - 19
Pope Nicholas V10 decades - 20
Antipope John XXIII0 decades - 21
Andrea Mantegna22 decades - 22
Giovanni Bellini22 decades - 23
Pope Innocent VIII20 decades - 24
Marsilio Ficino22 decades - 25
Donato Bramante22 decades - 26
Pope Eugene IV3 decades - 27
Antonello da Messina22 decades - 28
Caterina Sforza3 decades - 29
Pietro Perugino22 decades - 30
Pope Pius III0 decades - 31
Paolo Uccello22 decades - 32
Aldus Manutiusnot measured- - 33
Pinturicchio22 decades - 34
Simonetta Vespucci10 decades - 35
Federico da Montefeltro22 decades - 36
Francesco I Sforza0 decades - 37
Galeazzo Maria Sforza22 decades - 38
Bernardino of Siena22 decades - 39
Catherine of Bologna21 decades - 40
Catherine Cornaro1 decades - 41
Luca Signorelli22 decades - 42
Filippino Lippi21 decades - 43
Agnolo Poliziano22 decades - 44
Alfonso II of Naples3 decades - 45
Gentile Bellini22 decades - 46
Pisanello22 decades - 47
Bartolomeo Colleoni22 decades - 48
Francis of Paola0 decades - 49
Giovanni Giustiniani3 decades - 50
Poggio Bracciolini21 decades - 51
Lorenzo Valla14 decades - 52
Clarice Orsini22 decades - 53
Matteo Maria Boiardo22 decades - 54
Beatrice d’Este4 decades - 55
Catherine of Genoa21 decades - 56
Andrea del Castagno22 decades - 57
Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandia22 decades - 58
Erasmo of Narni22 decades - 59
Francesco Foscari22 decades - 60
Leonardo Loredan21 decades - 61
Jacopo Sannazaro22 decades - 62
Giuliano da Sangallo22 decades - 63
Francesco di Giorgio20 decades - 64
Jacopo della Quercia22 decades - 65
Domenico Veneziano22 decades - 66
Melozzo da Forlì22 decades - 67
Filaretenot measured- - 68
Michelozzo18 decades - 69
Jacopo Bellini0 decades - 70
Giovanni Santi21 decades - 71
Bernardo Rossellino0 decades - 72
Sassetta22 decades - 73
Cristoforo Landino22 decades - 74
Nanni di Banco17 decades - 75
Agostino di Duccio14 decades - 76
Cristoforo Moro22 decades - 77
Benedetto da Maiano22 decades - 78
Antonio Rossellino20 decades - 79
Taccola3 decades - 80
Bertoldo di Giovanni13 decades - 81
Giovanni Antonio Amadeo0 decades - 82
Ercole de' Roberti0 decades - 83
Fra Carnevale0 decades - 84
Baccio Pontelli0 decades - 85
Andrea Bregno13 decades - 86
Matteo Civitali21 decades - 87Bartolomeo Facio21 decades
- 88
Giuliano da Maiano0 decades - 89
Bartolomeo della Gatta0 decades - 90Luca Fancelli20 decades
- 91
Aloisio da Milanonot measured- - 92
Baccio Baldini21 decades - 93
Biagio Rossetti0 decades - 94
Simone del Pollaiolo0 decades - 95
Niccolò di Piero Lamberti0 decades - 96
Giovanni Cristoforo Romano0 decades - 97
Giovanni Battagio1 decades - 98
Francesco Fiorentino0 decades - 99
Domenico Panetti0 decades - 100
Guidoccio Cozzarelli0 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.