Claim profile
1600–1699

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 Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇫🇷 France🇩🇪 Germany🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇯🇵 Japan🇹🇷 Turkey🇳🇱 Netherlands🇪🇸 Spain🇮🇹 Italy🇸🇪 Sweden🇮🇳 India
FieldAllWritersPoliticiansHistorical FiguresArtistsAcademicsScientistsMusiciansReligious FiguresActorsModels
  1. 1Pope Benedict XIIIPope Benedict XIII1649–1730 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures20 decades
  2. 2Pope Clement XIPope Clement XI1649–1721 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  3. 3Pope Alexander VIIPope Alexander VII1599–1667 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  4. 4Pope Innocent XIPope Innocent XI1611–1689 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  5. 5Pope Clement IXPope Clement IX1600–1669 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures20 decades
  6. 6Pope Innocent XPope Innocent X1574–1655 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures3 decades
  7. 7Pope Innocent XIIIPope Innocent XIII1655–1724 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  8. 8Pope Innocent XIIPope Innocent XII1615–1700 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures8 decades
  9. 9Pope Clement XPope Clement X1590–1676 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  10. 10Pope Alexander VIIIPope Alexander VIII1610–1691 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.