← 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
William Shakespeare22 decades - 2
Martin Luther22 decades - 3
Galileo Galilei22 decades - 4
Michelangelo22 decades - 5
Niccolò Machiavelli22 decades - 6
Miguel de Cervantes22 decades - 7
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor22 decades - 8
Hernán Cortés22 decades - 9
Ivan the Terrible19 decades - 10
Mary, Queen of Scots22 decades - 11
Akbarnot measured- - 12
Ferdinand Magellan22 decades - 13
Nicolaus Copernicus8 decades - 14
Suleiman the Magnificent11 decades - 15
Philip II of Spain22 decades - 16
Anne Boleyn22 decades - 17
Thomas More22 decades - 18
Mary I of England22 decades - 19
Vasco da Gama22 decades - 20
Henry VIII of England13 decades - 21
Raphael22 decades - 22
Nostradamus22 decades - 23
Henry IV of France10 decades - 24
Elizabeth I of England6 decades - 25
Francis Drake22 decades - 26
Albrecht Dürer22 decades - 27
Giordano Bruno22 decades - 28
Catherine of Aragon20 decades - 29
Babur17 decades - 30
Catherine de' Medici22 decades - 31
Teresa of Ávila22 decades - 32
Francis I of France0 decades - 33
Erasmusnot measured- - 34
John Calvin22 decades - 35
Ignatius of Loyola22 decades - 36
Lady Jane Grey22 decades - 37
Tokugawa Ieyasu8 decades - 38
Guru Nanak13 decades - 39
Michel de Montaigne22 decades - 40
Jacques Cartier22 decades - 41
Christopher Marlowe22 decades - 42
Tycho Brahe22 decades
- 43
Paracelsus22 decades - 44
Pope Leo X22 decades - 45
Oda Nobunaga8 decades - 46
El Greco15 decades - 47
Francisco Pizarro22 decades - 48
Titian22 decades - 49
Francis Xavier22 decades - 50
Henry II of Francenot measured- - 51
Selim I11 decades - 52
Catherine Howard22 decades - 53
Lucrezia Borgia22 decades - 54
François Rabelais22 decades - 55
Joanna of Castile3 decades - 56
Toyotomi Hideyoshi8 decades - 57
Pieter Bruegel the Elder0 decades - 58
Pope Clement VII22 decades - 59
Charles IX of France0 decades - 60
Anne of Cleves4 decades - 61
Elizabeth Báthory0 decades - 62
Lope de Vega22 decades - 63
Francis II of France22 decades - 64
Henry III of France4 decades - 65
Boris Godunov22 decades - 66
Humayun21 decades - 67
William the Silentnot measured- - 68
Francis Bacon22 decades - 69
Walter Raleigh22 decades - 70
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor0 decades - 71
Huldrych Zwingli9 decades - 72
Catherine Parr22 decades - 73
Selim II18 decades - 74
Cesare Borgia22 decades - 75
Pope Paul IIInot measured- - 76
Edward VI of England0 decades - 77
Ismail Inot measured- - 78
Murad III6 decades - 79
Margaret of Valois22 decades - 80
Moctezuma II1 decades - 81
John of the Cross22 decades - 82
Elizabeth of Yorknot measured- - 83
Feodor I of Russianot measured- - 84
Bartolomé de las Casas22 decades - 85
Hayreddin Barbarossanot measured- - 86
Thomas Cromwell22 decades - 87
Hans Holbein the Younger18 decades - 88
Pope Gregory XIII22 decades - 89
Mary Tudor, Queen of France22 decades - 90
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperornot measured- - 91
Pope Sixtus V22 decades - 92
Margaret Tudor19 decades - 93
Giorgio Vasari22 decades - 94
Tulsidas11 decades - 95
Thomas Wolsey21 decades - 96
John Knox22 decades - 97
Thomas Cranmer22 decades - 98
Vasili III of Russia12 decades - 99
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu0 decades - 100
Atahualpanot 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.