← 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
Francisco de Vitoria21 decades - 2
Bernardino de Sahagún14 decades - 3
Juan Luis Vives6 decades - 4
Thomas of Villanova22 decades - 5
Luis de Molina22 decades
- 6
Domingo de Soto22 decades - 7
Martín de Azpilcueta1 decades - 8
Juan Latino21 decades - 9
Bartolomé Carranza22 decades - 10
Melchor Cano22 decades - 11
Francisco Sanches0 decades - 12
Alfonso Salmerón0 decades - 13
Domingo Báñez14 decades - 14
Oliva Sabuco21 decades - 15
Diego de Covarubias y Leyva3 decades - 16
Francisco de Toledonot measured- - 17
Gabriel Vásquez4 decades - 18
Francisco de Enzinas14 decades - 19
Domingo de Santo Tomás19 decades - 20
Benedict Pereira10 decades - 21Pedro de Córdoba22 decades
- 22
Tomás de Mercado8 decades - 23
Alfonso de Castro22 decades - 24
Martín de Rada14 decades - 25
Pedro Ciruelo22 decades - 26
José de Sigüenza21 decades - 27
Pedro Chacón20 decades - 28Juan Bermudo12 decades
- 29
Gregorio de Valencia19 decades - 30Juan Bautista Villalpandonot measured-
- 31Diego de Zúñiganot measured-
- 32
Fernando Vázquez Menchacanot measured- - 33
Francisco Zumelnot measured- - 34
Gabriel Trejo Paniagua0 decades - 35Pablo José Arriaganot measured-
- 36
Sebastián Fox Morcillonot measured- - 37
Balthasar de Ayalanot measured- - 38Turrianusnot measured-
- 39
Juan de Ortega22 decades - 40
Juan de Mal Laranot measured- - 41
Juan Azornot measured-
- 42Gaspar de Baezanot measured-
- 43Pedro Manriquenot 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.