Claim profile
1500–1599

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 Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇪🇸 Spain🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan🇩🇪 Germany🇮🇹 Italy🇹🇷 Turkey🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇸🇪 Sweden🇨🇭 Switzerland🇮🇳 India
FieldAllHistorical FiguresWritersPoliticiansArtistsAcademicsReligious FiguresMusiciansScientistsModelsActors
  1. 1Juan de ValdésJuan de Valdés1505–1541 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors21 decades
  2. 2Luis de GranadaLuis de Granada1504–1588 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors22 decades
  3. 3Juan de RiberaJuan de Ribera1532–1611 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors22 decades
  4. 4Alfonso de ValdésAlfonso de Valdés1490–1532 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors17 decades
  5. 5Bartolomé de MedinaBartolomé de Medina1527–1580 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors21 decades
  6. 6ADAlfonso de Zamora1474–1531 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors22 decades
  7. 7Luis de la PuenteLuis de la Puente1554–1624 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors22 decades
  8. 8Meir ben Ezekiel ibn GabbaiMeir ben Ezekiel ibn Gabbai1480–1540 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  9. 9PDPedro de Soto1493–1563 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors22 decades
  10. 10JDJuan de Vergara1492–1557 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  11. 11APAndrés Pacheco de Cárdenas1550–1626 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  12. 12LALorenzo Asensio Otaduy Avendaño1539–1611 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  13. 13DDDiego de Chaves1507–1592 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.