← 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
William III of England2 decades - 2
Abel Tasman8 decades - 3
William II, Prince of Orangenot measured- - 4Willem Janszoon0 decades
- 5Jacob Roggeveen0 decades
- 6
Dirk Hartog8 decades - 7
Willem Schouten0 decades - 8
Willem de Vlamingh0 decades - 9
Jacob Le Maire0 decades - 10
Adriaen Block0 decades - 11
Hendrick Hamel0 decades - 12
Jacob van Heemskerck0 decades - 13
Countess Emilia of Nassaunot measured- - 14
Johan Nieuhof0 decades - 15
Pieter Nuyts0 decades - 16
Sebald de Weert0 decades - 17Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhoutnot measured-
- 18
Martin Vries0 decades - 19
Willem Bontekoe0 decades - 20Cornelius Jacobsen Maynot measured-
- 21Jan Rijpnot measured-
- 22Johannes van Walbeecknot measured-
- 23
Pieter de Mareesnot measured- - 24David Cohen Nassynot measured-
- 25Willem Verstegennot 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.