← Fame through time1500-1599
The 16th century
Whose working lives fell in the 16th 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 16th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Nostradamus22 decades - 2
John Calvin22 decades - 3
Jean Bodin22 decades - 4
François Viète0 decades - 5
Theodore Beza21 decades - 6
Isaac Casaubon18 decades
- 7
Blaise de Vigenère0 decades - 8
Oronce Finé14 decades - 9
Philippe de Mornay3 decades - 10
Étienne Dolet0 decades - 11Jacques Pelletier du Mans12 decades
- 12
Pierre Charron1 decades - 13
Jacques Cujas0 decades - 14
Petrus Gyllius0 decades - 15
Guillaume du Vair0 decades - 16
François Vatable7 decades - 17
Muretus16 decades - 18
Georges d'Armagnac0 decades - 19
Jacques Besson0 decades - 20
Denis Godefroy0 decades - 21
Jean de Corasnot measured- - 22
François Baudouinnot measured- - 23
Hugues Doneau0 decades - 24
Denis Lambin0 decades - 25
Jean Errardnot measured- - 26
Barnabé Brissonnot measured- - 27Jean Tixier de Ravisinot measured-
- 28Claude Dupuynot measured-
- 29Nicolas Barnaudnot measured-
- 30
André Tiraqueaunot measured- - 31
Pierre de la Placenot measured- - 32
Johannes Buteonot measured- - 33Omer Talonnot measured-
- 34
François Douarennot measured- - 35
Francis of Foix-Candalenot measured- - 36Jean Tardenot measured-
- 37
Claude D'Espencenot measured- - 38Jacques Aleaumenot measured-
- 39Jean-François du Soleilnot 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.