← 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
Prince Rupert of the Rhinenot measured- - 2
Otto von Guericke10 decades - 3
Engelbert Kaempfer7 decades - 4
Hennig Brand0 decades - 5
Johann Adam Schall von Bell5 decades - 6
Johann Bayer8 decades - 7
Hans Lippershey1 decades - 8
Johann Homann4 decades - 9
Gottfried Kirch9 decades - 10
Johannes Fabricius13 decades - 11
Georg Marcgrave0 decades - 12
Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel0 decades - 13
Peter Schenk the Eldernot measured- - 14
Daniel Sennert0 decades - 15
Christoph Arnold15 decades - 16
Julius Schiller1 decades - 17
Paul Hermann17 decades - 18
Giovanni Faber0 decades - 19Wilhelm Homberg0 decades
- 20
Augustus Quirinus Rivinus0 decades - 21
Georg Samuel Dörffel0 decades - 22Johann Abraham Ihlenot measured-
- 23
Werner Rolfinck0 decades - 24
Jakob Bartsch0 decades - 25
Stephan Farfflernot measured- - 26
Johann Sigismund Elsholtz0 decades - 27Christian Knaut0 decades
- 28
Simon Paullinot measured- - 29
Johann Veslingnot measured- - 30
Georg Wolfgang Wedelnot measured- - 31
Johann Schröder8 decades - 32
Johannes Hartmannnot measured- - 33
Eilhard Lubinusnot measured- - 34
Ambrose Godfreynot measured- - 35Joachim Bursernot measured-
- 36
Christian Mentzel4 decades - 37
Georg Balthasar Metzgernot measured- - 38Salomon Idlernot measured-
- 39Johann Christoph Volkamernot measured-
- 40
Ludwig Jungermannnot measured- - 41
Caspar Meriannot measured- - 42
Albert Curtznot measured- - 43
Adrian von Mynsichtnot measured- - 44
Michael Ettmüllernot measured- - 45
Johann Philipp von Wurzelbauernot measured- - 46Johannes Loeselnot measured-
- 47Heinrich Cunitznot 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.