← 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
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina16 decades - 2
Thomas Tallis9 decades - 3
William Byrd22 decades - 4
John Dowland13 decades - 5
Tomás Luis de Victoria14 decades - 6
Tansen7 decades - 7Giovanni Gabrieli17 decades
- 8
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck0 decades - 9
Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich of Russianot measured- - 10
Vincenzo Galilei22 decades - 11
Jacopo Peri22 decades - 12
Giulio Caccini22 decades - 13
Orlande de Lassus3 decades - 14
Thomas Morley22 decades - 15
Anacaona12 decades - 16
David Rizzio11 decades - 17
Purandara Dasa0 decades - 18Clément Janequin10 decades
- 19
Hans Leo Hassler12 decades - 20
John Taverner3 decades - 21
John Bull22 decades - 22
Barbara Blomberg13 decades - 23
Adrian Willaert0 decades - 24
Margaret Roper14 decades - 25
Hayyim ben Joseph Vital22 decades - 26
Luca Marenzio19 decades - 27
Gioseffo Zarlino17 decades - 28Andrea Gabrieli18 decades
- 29
Francisco Guerrero22 decades - 30Jacques Arcadelt1 decades
- 31
Kanaka Dasa0 decades - 32
Antonio de Cabezahueca12 decades - 33
Jacobus Gallus5 decades - 34
Cipriano de Rore14 decades - 35
Tielman Susato0 decades - 36
Maddalena Casulana0 decades - 37Mark Smeaton3 decades
- 38
Emilio de' Cavalieri13 decades - 39
Philipp Nicolai18 decades - 40
Ludwig Senfl16 decades - 41Johann Walter20 decades
- 42
Claudio Merulo17 decades - 43Nicolas Gombert0 decades
- 44
Veit Bach1 decades - 45Jacob Clemens non Papa0 decades
- 46Pierre Attaingnant8 decades
- 47
Ğazı II Giraynot measured- - 48
Claude Goudimel17 decades - 49Luis de Narváez13 decades
- 50
Nicola Vicentino19 decades - 51
Luzzasco Luzzaschi9 decades - 52Luis de Milán2 decades
- 53
Claude Le Jeune10 decades - 54
Francesco Canova da Milano19 decades - 55Alonso Mudarra4 decades
- 56
Diego Ortiz22 decades - 57Claudin de Sermisy4 decades
- 58
Louis Bourgeois12 decades - 59Mateo Flecha0 decades
- 60Martin Agricola13 decades
- 61Alessandro Striggio14 decades
- 62
Philippe de Monte0 decades - 63
Orazio Vecchi22 decades - 64
Philippe Verdelot0 decades - 65
Johann Cochlaeus12 decades - 66
Giovanni Artusi2 decades - 67Lodovico Grossi da Viadana0 decades
- 68
Christopher Tye0 decades - 69Bartolomeo Tromboncino11 decades
- 70Giaches de Wert0 decades
- 71
Bálint Bakfark0 decades - 72Marc'Antonio Ingegneri3 decades
- 73
Alonso Lobo11 decades - 74
Peter Philips0 decades - 75
Richard Edwardes0 decades - 76
Johannes Eccard4 decades - 77
Agostino Veneziano0 decades - 78Silvia Ruffininot measured-
- 79
Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi2 decades - 80John Sheppard18 decades
- 81
Vicente Lusitano0 decades
- 82
Sethus Calvisius12 decades - 83
Jean Titelouze2 decades - 84
Felice Anerio0 decades - 85
Anthony Holborne0 decades - 86Giovanni Bassano0 decades
- 87
Thomas Crecquillon0 decades - 88Girolamo Diruta10 decades
- 89
Giovanni Maria Nanino6 decades - 90
Giovanni Animuccia15 decades - 91Leonhard Lechner8 decades
- 92Giovanni Croce17 decades
- 93Miguel de Fuenllana12 decades
- 94
Tarquinia Molza21 decades - 95
Costanzo Festa13 decades - 96
Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx0 decades - 97Giles Farnaby0 decades
- 98
Hans Neusidler0 decades - 99
Costanzo Porta19 decades - 100Francisco de Peñalosa10 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.