← 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
Rembrandt22 decades - 2
Baruch Spinoza16 decades - 3
Johannes Vermeer3 decades - 4
William III of England2 decades - 5
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek7 decades - 6
Christiaan Huygens7 decades - 7
Abel Tasman8 decades - 8
Hugo Grotius22 decades - 9
Maria Sibylla Merian9 decades - 10
Johan de Witt0 decades - 11
Frans Halsnot measured- - 12
Peter Stuyvesant22 decades - 13
William II, Prince of Orangenot measured- - 14
Michiel de Ruyter0 decades - 15
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouthnot measured- - 16
._Bevelhebber_van_Kaap_de_Goede_Hoop_en_van_Malacca_en_secretaris_van_de_Hoge_Regering_van_Batavia._Rijksmuseum_SK-A-805.jpeg?width=120)
Jan van Riebeeck7 decades - 17
Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassaunot measured- - 18
Carel Fabritius0 decades - 19
Jan Steen22 decades - 20
Gerard van Honthorst0 decades - 21
Rachel Ruysch0 decades - 22
Cornelis Drebbelnot measured- - 23
Jacob van Ruisdael5 decades - 24
Saskia van Uylenburgh0 decades - 25
Judith Leyster0 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.