← 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
Galileo Galilei22 decades - 2
Tycho Brahe22 decades
- 3
Philip Melanchthon22 decades - 4
Piri Reis4 decades - 5
Martin Waldseemüller10 decades - 6
Johann Georg Faust0 decades - 7
Abraham Ortelius4 decades - 8
Thomas Harriot7 decades - 9
Christopher Clavius1 decades - 10
Peter Henlein13 decades - 11
Bernard Palissy22 decades - 12
Ulisse Aldrovandi1 decades - 13
Li Shizhen7 decades - 14
Jodocus Hondius Inot measured- - 15
Sophia Brahe0 decades - 16
Carolus Clusius0 decades - 17
Petrus Plancius0 decades - 18
Sanctorius17 decades - 19
William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel22 decades - 20
Pietro Andrea Mattioli21 decades - 21
Gaspard Bauhin21 decades - 22
Thomas Digges14 decades - 23
Hieronymus Bock18 decades - 24
John Gerard22 decades - 25
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberlandnot measured- - 26
Garcia de Orta2 decades - 27
Michael Maestlin0 decades - 28
Alonso Álvarez de Pineda0 decades - 29
David Fabricius14 decades - 30
Estêvão Gomes17 decades - 31
Guillaume Rondelet18 decades - 32Ottaviano Petrucci14 decades
- 33
Paul Luther2 decades - 34
Johannes Schöner9 decades - 35
Jean Fernel0 decades - 36
Ignazio Danti21 decades - 37
Otto Brunfels22 decades - 38
André Thévet0 decades - 39
Rembert Dodoens0 decades - 40
Conrad Haas0 decades - 41
Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont0 decades - 42
Valerius Cordus3 decades - 43
Nicolás Monardes19 decades - 44
Diego de Ordaz22 decades - 45
João de Castro0 decades - 46
Luca Ghini21 decades - 47
Guidobaldo del Monte4 decades - 48Zhu Zaiyu, Prince of Zhengnot measured-
- 49
Johannes Honter7 decades - 50
Matthias de l'Obel0 decades - 51
Prospero Alpini5 decades - 52
Matthias Ringmann0 decades - 53
Giovanni Antonio Magini13 decades - 54
Heinrich Bünting0 decades - 55
Johann Bauhin0 decades - 56
Edward Wright22 decades - 57
Giacomo Gastaldi12 decades - 58
Alessandro Piccolomini22 decades - 59
Basilius Besler0 decades - 60
Leonhard Rauwolf0 decades - 61Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri0 decades
- 62
Tadeáš Hájek0 decades - 63
Christen Sørensen Longomontanusnot measured- - 64
Urbano Monti1 decades - 65
Pedro Reinel0 decades - 66
Blasco de Garay21 decades - 67
Agostino Ramelli0 decades - 68
Hadrianus Junius0 decades - 69Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser0 decades
- 70
Francesco Barozzi0 decades - 71
Oswald Croll0 decades
- 72
Nicolaus Reimers0 decades - 73Martín Fernández de Enciso14 decades
- 74Jean Beguin0 decades
- 75
Cristóvão da Costa14 decades - 76
Pedro de Medina22 decades - 77
Jean Robin22 decades - 78
Jacques Daléchamps0 decades - 79
Jacques le Moyne2 decades - 80
Philippe van Lansbergenot measured- - 81
Fernão Vaz Dourado0 decades - 82
Gian Vincenzo Pinelli18 decades - 83
Andrea Bianco21 decades - 84Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer0 decades
- 85Diogo Ribeiro19 decades
- 86Euricius Cordus21 decades
- 87
Bartolomeu Velho0 decades - 88
Jakob Christmann0 decades - 89
Nicholas Kratzer0 decades - 90Ruy Faleiro0 decades
- 91
Lopo Homem0 decades - 92
Battista Agnese14 decades - 93
Albert Pighius0 decades - 94William Leenot measured-
- 95
Adam de Craponne0 decades - 96
Jacob van Deventernot measured- - 97
Gerard de Jode0 decades - 98Gabriel Soares de Souza0 decades
- 99
Rumold Mercator0 decades - 100
Celio Calcagnini22 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.