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. 1María CalderónMaría Calderón1611–1646 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors19 decades
  2. 2MDMartin Droeshout1601–1650 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors2 decades
  3. 3John de LugoJohn de Lugo1583–1660 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors1 decades
  4. 4José Saenz d'AguirreJosé Saenz d'Aguirre1630–1699 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actors0 decades
  5. 5AVAntonio Vázquez de Espinosa1570–1630 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  6. 6Pedro de GodoyPedro de Godoy1608–1677 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  7. 7Alonso de la Peña MontenegroAlonso de la Peña Montenegro1596–1688 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot measured—
  8. 8MEManuela Escamilla1650–1721 · 🇪🇸 Spain · Actorsnot 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.