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.
#PersonIn print, 1800–2019Echoed
- 1
Edmond Halley1656–1742 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists6 decades - 2
Thomas Newcomen1664–1729 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists15 decades - 3
Hans Sloane1660–1753 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists22 decades - 4
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John Flamsteed1646–1719 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists7 decades - 5
Thomas Savery1650–1715 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists5 decades - 6
John Ray1627–1705 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists22 decades - 7
Robert Morison1620–1683 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists1 decades - 8
William Crabtree1610–1644 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientists1 decades - 9JBJohn Banister1650–1692 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientistsnot measured—
- 10
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John Bainbridge1582–1643 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientistsnot measured— - 11
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Richard Blome1635–1705 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientistsnot measured— - 12WPWalter Pope1627–1714 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Scientistsnot 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.