← 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
Martin Luther22 decades - 2
Albrecht Dürer22 decades - 3
Anne of Cleves4 decades - 4
William the Silentnot measured- - 5
Hans Holbein the Younger18 decades - 6
Thomas Müntzer15 decades - 7
Lucas Cranach the Elder6 decades - 8
Philip Melanchthon22 decades - 9
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa0 decades - 10
Katharina von Bora21 decades - 11
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tillynot measured- - 12
Matthias Grünewald1 decades - 13
Johann Georg Faust0 decades - 14
Albert, Duke of Prussianot measured- - 15
Georgius Agricola22 decades - 16
Hans Sachs22 decades - 17
Ulrich von Hutten22 decades - 18
Götz von Berlichingen12 decades - 19
Johann Tetzel20 decades - 20
Florian Geyer18 decades - 21
Albrecht Altdorfer19 decades - 22
Martin Bucer22 decades - 23
Hans Holbein the Elder5 decades - 24
Hans Baldung20 decades - 25
Bianca Maria Sforza0 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.