← 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
Johannes Kepler18 decades - 2
Peter Paul Rubens22 decades - 3
George I of Great Britainnot measured- - 4
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperornot measured- - 5
Frederick I of Prussianot measured- - 6Johann Pachelbel9 decades
- 7
Sophia of Hanover2 decades - 8
Jakob Böhme22 decades - 9
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburgnot measured- - 10
Athanasius Kircher21 decades - 11
Frederick V of the Palatinatenot measured- - 12
Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine11 decades - 13
Dieterich Buxtehude1 decades - 14
Prince Rupert of the Rhinenot measured- - 15
Maurice, Prince of Orangenot measured- - 16
Otto von Guericke10 decades - 17
Maximilian I, Elector of Bavarianot measured- - 18
Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria5 decades - 19
Heinrich Schütz20 decades - 20
Paul Gerhardt20 decades - 21
Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen8 decades - 22
Peter Minuit16 decades - 23
Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxonynot measured- - 24
Michael Praetorius15 decades - 25
Godfrey Kneller0 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.