← Fame through time1640-1649
The 1640s
Whose working lives fell in the 1640s. 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 1640s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Rembrandt22 decades - 2
John Milton22 decades - 3
Philip IV of Spain20 decades - 4
Pierre Corneille22 decades - 5
Murad IV4 decades - 6
Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empirenot measured- - 7
Pierre de Fermat8 decades - 8
Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor22 decades - 9
Henrietta Maria of France0 decades - 10
Pope Innocent XI22 decades - 11
Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnannot measured- - 12
Patriarch Nikon of Moscow22 decades - 13
Chongzhen Emperor0 decades - 14
Evangelista Torricelli22 decades - 15
Frederick III of Denmark0 decades - 16
Peter Stuyvesant22 decades - 17
Michiel de Ruyter0 decades - 18
Maria Anna of Spainnot measured- - 19
Gaston, Duke of Orléans17 decades - 20
Jahanara Begum0 decades - 21
John II Casimir Vasa0 decades - 22
François de La Rochefoucauld18 decades - 23
André Le Nôtre10 decades - 24
Evliya Çelebi2 decades - 25
Tukaram15 decades - 26
Thomas Browne22 decades - 27
Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of Turennenot measured- - 28
Paul Gerhardt20 decades - 29
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameronnot measured- - 30
Johannes Hevelius3 decades - 31
Balthasar Charles8 decades - 32
Pope Alexander VIII0 decades - 33
Madeleine de Scudéry17 decades - 34
Li Zicheng9 decades - 35
Anne Bradstreet17 decades - 36
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarlenot measured- - 37
Paul Scarron22 decades - 38
Safi of Persia0 decades - 39
Christine of France22 decades - 40
Mary Dyer21 decades - 41
Dorgon4 decades - 42
Raimondo, Prince Montecuccolinot measured- - 43
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier5 decades - 44
Saskia van Uylenburgh0 decades - 45
Judith Leyster0 decades - 46
Wu Sangui6 decades - 47
Matthew Hopkins10 decades - 48
Jean François Paul de Gondinot measured- - 49
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany19 decades - 50
Louis Le Vau11 decades - 51
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendonnot measured- - 52
Anna Maria van Schurman0 decades - 53
Maria Leopoldine of Austrianot measured- - 54
Gu Yanwu8 decades - 55
David Teniers the Younger0 decades - 56Khushal Khan Khattak0 decades
- 57
Zhang Xianzhong6 decades - 58
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria22 decades - 59
Mattia Preti22 decades - 60
Henry Ireton9 decades - 61
Thomas Fuller22 decades - 62
Gerrit Dou0 decades - 63
Pierre Mignard I22 decades - 64
Juan Carreño de Miranda16 decades - 65
John Wilkins22 decades - 66
Marie Louise Gonzaga13 decades - 67
Luisa de Guzmánnot measured- - 68
Antoine Arnauld22 decades - 69
Semyon Dezhnyov0 decades - 70
Wenceslaus Hollar3 decades - 71
Ivan Sirko0 decades - 72
Hezârfen Ahmet Çelebinot measured- - 73
Claude Perrault22 decades - 74
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria0 decades - 75Gerrard Winstanley6 decades
- 76
Odoardo Farnese0 decades - 77
Jacob Kettler0 decades - 78
Carl Gustaf Wrangel0 decades
- 79
John George II, Elector of Saxonynot measured- - 80Giulia Tofana0 decades
- 81
James Harrington22 decades - 82
Cecilia Renata of Austria0 decades
- 83
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrosenot measured- - 84
John Lilburne20 decades - 85
Nicholas Francis0 decades - 86
Pierre-Paul Riquet7 decades - 87
Samarth Ramdas0 decades - 88
Henry More22 decades - 89
George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadtnot measured- - 90
Jan Davidsz. de Heemnot measured- - 91
Kâtip Çelebi0 decades - 92
Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg20 decades - 93
Jeremi Wiśniowiecki0 decades - 94
Masaniello22 decades - 95
Simon Dach22 decades - 96
Paul Fleming16 decades - 97Giacomo Carissimi0 decades
- 98
Jeremiah Horrocks1 decades - 99
Margherita de' Medici19 decades - 100
Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore8 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.