← 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
Claudio Monteverdi14 decades - 2
Henry Purcell22 decades - 3
Jean-Baptiste Lully6 decades - 4Johann Pachelbel9 decades
- 5
Arcangelo Corelli20 decades - 6
Dieterich Buxtehude1 decades - 7
Carlo Gesualdo20 decades - 8
Alessandro Scarlatti21 decades - 9
Heinrich Schütz20 decades - 10
Marc-Antoine Charpentier9 decades - 11
Marin Marais8 decades - 12
Michael Praetorius15 decades - 13
Heinrich Biber4 decades - 14
Girolamo Frescobaldi17 decades - 15
Gregorio Allegri16 decades - 16
Orlando Gibbons20 decades - 17
Barbara Strozzi5 decades - 18
Joachim Neander14 decades - 19
Johann Joseph Fux9 decades - 20
Johann Ambrosius Bach0 decades - 21
Francesco Cavalli22 decades - 22
Alessandro Stradella17 decades - 23
Francesca Caccini9 decades - 24
Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kasselnot measured- - 25
Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany22 decades - 26
Giuseppe Torelli22 decades - 27Johann Jakob Froberger2 decades
- 28
Gaspar Sanz Celmanot measured- - 29
Thomas Campion19 decades - 30
Johann Kuhnau13 decades - 31
André Campra7 decades - 32Giacomo Carissimi0 decades
- 33
Samuel Scheidt15 decades - 34
Michel Richard Delalande1 decades - 35
Johann Christoph Bach Inot measured- - 36
John Blow8 decades - 37
Nicolaus Bruhns0 decades - 38Georg Böhm17 decades
- 39
Johann Hermann Schein10 decades - 40
Johann Crüger10 decades - 41
Georg Muffat0 decades - 42Louis Couperin11 decades
- 43
Moll Davis0 decades - 44
Giovanni Legrenzi13 decades - 45
Johann Adam Reincken0 decades - 46Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe0 decades
- 47
Isabella Leonarda2 decades - 48Robert de Visée1 decades
- 49Andreas Werckmeister6 decades
- 50
Adriano Banchieri19 decades - 51
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer4 decades - 52
Bernardo Pasquini15 decades - 53Thomas Weelkes2 decades
- 54Antonio Cesti0 decades
- 55
Johann Michael Bach I2 decades - 56
Jacob van Eyck0 decades - 57
Pierre Beauchamp1 decades - 58
William Lawes10 decades - 59
Tomaso Antonio Vitali0 decades - 60Johann Rosenmüller5 decades
- 61
Stefano Landi14 decades - 62
Matthew Locke10 decades - 63
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger0 decades - 64
Johann Kaspar Kerllnot measured- - 65Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer2 decades
- 66
Salamone Rossi0 decades - 67Michelagnolo Galileinot measured-
- 68
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow3 decades - 69
Andreas Hammerschmidt10 decades - 70
Thomas d'Urfey0 decades - 71
Chen Yuanyuannot measured- - 72
Heinrich Scheidemann4 decades - 73
Jean-Henri d'Anglebert0 decades - 74Matthias Weckmann7 decades
- 75Thomas Ravenscroft1 decades
- 76
John Adolphus I of Saxe-Weissenfels0 decades - 77
André Félibien16 decades - 78Thomas Tomkins8 decades
- 79
Vincent Lübeck5 decades - 80Vittoria Aleotti0 decades
- 81Heinrich Bach11 decades
- 82
Antonio Bertali0 decades - 83Johann Krieger4 decades
- 84Domenico Gabrielli0 decades
- 85
John Playford19 decades - 86
Luigi Rossi0 decades - 87
Juan Bautista Cabanilles2 decades - 88Melchior Franck12 decades
- 89
Giacomo Antonio Perti12 decades - 90
Teodósio, Prince of Brazilnot measured- - 91
Tarquinio Merula7 decades - 92Philipp Heinrich Erlebach1 decades
- 93Marco Uccellini0 decades
- 94Sigismondo D'India8 decades
- 95Johannes Bach2 decades
- 96Franz Tunder8 decades
- 97Christoph Bach17 decades
- 98
Johann Schop2 decades - 99
Melchior Vulpius0 decades - 100
Michel Lambert19 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.