215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1600-1699

The 17th century

Whose working lives fell in the 17th 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 17th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Cardinal Richelieu1585-1642 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  2. 2Cardinal Mazarin1602-1661 · France · Religious Figures20 decades
  3. 3Francis de Sales1567-1622 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  4. 4Vincent de Paul1581-1660 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  5. 5François Fénelon1651-1715 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  6. 6Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet1627-1704 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  7. 7Margaret Mary Alacoque1647-1690 · France · Religious Figures18 decades
  8. 8Jean-Baptiste de La Salle1651-1719 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  9. 9Jean Meslier1664-1729 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  10. 10Jean François Paul de Gondi1613-1679 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  11. 11André-Hercule de Fleury1653-1743 · France · Religious Figures0 decades
  12. 12Jean Eudes1601-1680 · France · Religious Figures19 decades
  13. 13Urbain Grandier1590-1634 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  14. 14Henri, Prince of Condé1588-1646 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  15. 15Claude de la Colombière1641-1682 · France · Religious Figures1 decades
  16. 16Louis, Duke of Vendôme1612-1669 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  17. 17Antonio Barberini1607-1671 · France · Religious Figures22 decades
  18. 18Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy1613-1684 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  19. 19Philippe Couplet1623-1693 · France · Religious Figures0 decades
  20. 20Nicolas Barré1621-1686 · France · Religious Figures9 decades
  21. 21Jean-François de Gondi1584-1654 · France · Religious Figures20 decades
  22. 22Louis III of Lorraine, cardinal of Guise1575-1621 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
  23. 23Michele Mazzarino1605-1648 · France · Religious Figures7 decades
  24. 24Noël Chabanel1613-1649 · France · Religious Figures4 decades
  25. 25Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu1582-1653 · France · Religious Figuresnot measured-
Show 54 more

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.