Claim profile
500–599

The 6th century

Whose working lives fell in the 6th 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 6th century, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇮🇹 Italy🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan🇮🇳 India🇲🇽 Mexico🇹🇷 Turkey🇪🇸 Spain🇩🇪 Germany🇪🇬 Egypt
FieldAllHistorical FiguresWritersReligious FiguresPoliticiansAcademicsModelsActorsBusiness ProfessionalsDoctorsArtists
  1. 1Augustine of CanterburyAugustine of Canterbury550–605 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures16 decades
  2. 2Pope SilveriusPope Silverius477–537 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  3. 3Pope Pelagius IPope Pelagius I505–561 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  4. 4Pope Boniface IIPope Boniface IIdied 532 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  5. 5Pope John IPope John I470–526 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  6. 6Pope VigiliusPope Vigiliusdied 555 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures12 decades
  7. 7Pope John IIPope John II470–535 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  8. 8Pope Agapetus IPope Agapetus I490–536 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  9. 9Pope Boniface IVPope Boniface IV550–615 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  10. 10Pope Pelagius IIPope Pelagius II520–590 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  11. 11Pope Benedict IPope Benedict I525–579 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  12. 12Pope John IIIPope John III520–574 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  13. 13Pope Boniface IIIPope Boniface III540–607 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  14. 14Pope SabinianPope Sabinian530–606 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades

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.