← 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
Philip II of Spain22 decades - 2
Selim II18 decades - 3
Murad III6 decades - 4
Lisa del Giocondo1 decades - 5
Philip I of Castile3 decades - 6
Jiajing Emperor0 decades - 7
Zhengde Emperornot measured- - 8
Henry II of Navarre0 decades - 9
Longqing Emperor0 decades - 10
Catherine of Navarre0 decades - 11
Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria0 decades - 12
Augustus, Elector of Saxonynot measured- - 13
John III of Navarre0 decades - 14
Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg22 decades - 15
Cecilia Gallerani0 decades - 16
Henry IV19 decades - 17
Frederick III of the Palatinatenot measured- - 18
Louis VI of the Palatinatenot measured- - 19
Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhaltnot measured- - 20
Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach0 decades - 21
Tecun Uman0 decades - 22
Albrecht VII, Duke of Mecklenburg9 decades - 23
Mircea III Draculnot measured- - 24
Charles II, Margrave of Baden-Durlachnot measured- - 25
Catherine of Mecklenburg0 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.