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🇨🇳 China
FieldAllWritersPoliticiansHistorical FiguresArtistsAcademicsScientistsMusiciansReligious FiguresActorsModels
  1. 1Miyamoto MusashiMiyamoto Musashi1584–1645 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics2 decades
  2. 2Yamamoto TsunetomoYamamoto Tsunetomo1659–1719 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  3. 3Takakazu SekiTakakazu Seki1642–1708 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  4. 4Arai HakusekiArai Hakuseki1657–1725 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  5. 5Hayashi RazanHayashi Razan1583–1657 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  6. 6Kaibara EkkenKaibara Ekken1630–1714 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  7. 7Yamazaki AnsaiYamazaki Ansai1619–1682 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  8. 8Itō JinsaiItō Jinsai1627–1705 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  9. 9KeichūKeichū1640–1701 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  10. 10Kumazawa BanzanKumazawa Banzan1619–1691 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  11. 11Ikeda MitsumasaIkeda Mitsumasa1609–1682 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  12. 12Yoshida MitsuyoshiYoshida Mitsuyoshi1598–1672 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  13. 13Hayashi GahōHayashi Gahō1618–1688 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  14. 14TKTakebe Katahiro1664–1739 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academics0 decades
  15. 15Hayashi HōkōHayashi Hōkō1644–1732 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academicsnot measured—
  16. 16KMKambei Mori1600–1700 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academicsnot measured—
  17. 17Muro KyūsōMuro Kyūsō1658–1734 · 🇯🇵 Japan · Academicsnot measured—

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.