Renaissance
147 people
Abraham Ortelius
Flemish cartographer, geographer and cosmographer (1527–1598)
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
Grand vizier of Mughal emperor Akbar from 1579 to 1602
Adam Olearius
German writer, scholar and diplomat (1599-1671)
Adrian VI
pope of the Catholic Church from 1522 to 1523 (1459–1523)
Albrecht Dürer
German painter, printmaker, mathematician, and theorist (1471-1528)
Alessandro Achillini
Italian philosopher
Alexandre de Rhodes
Jesuit missionary from Avignon and Rome (1593-1660)
Ali Qushji
Ottoman astronomer and mathematician
Ali-Shir Nava'i
Turkic poet and politician (1441–1501)
Aloysius Lilius
Italian astronomer
Ambroise Paré
French surgeon
Andreas Vesalius
Flemish anatomist, physician and author (1514–1564)
Anthony van Diemen
Dutch colonial governor (1593–1645)
Antoine de Montchrestien
French economist and dramatist
Antonio de Nebrija
Spanish scholar
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer (1474–1566)
Bernal Díaz del Brawl
Spanish conquistador
Bonaventura Cavalieri
Italian mathematician and astronomer (1598–1647)
Caesar Baronius
Italian cardinal and ecclesiastical historian (1538–1607)
Christoph Scheiner
Jesuit father, physicist and astronomer (*1575 – †1650)
Christopher Clavius
German astronomer and mathematician (1538–1612)
Conrad Gessner
Swiss physician, bibliographer and naturalist (1516–1565)
Cornelis Drebbel
Dutch inventor and submarine pioneer
David Fabricius
German astronomer
Erasmus
Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian (1466-1536)
Fausto Veranzio
Humanist and bishop
Francesco Guicciardini
Italian writer, historian and politician (1483-1540)
Francis Bacon
English philosopher and statesman (1561–1626)
Francisco de Vitoria
Spanish philosopher
Francysk Skaryna
Ruthenian humanist, bible translator and book printer
François Rabelais
16th-century French writer and humanist (1494–1553)
François Viète
French mathematician (*1540 – †1603)
Frederick de Houtman
Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor (1571–1627)
Gabriele Falloppio
Italian anatomist (1523-1562)
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Galal al-Din el-Suyuti
Egyptian polymath, historian, sufi and jurist (1445–1505)
Galileo Galilei
Italian polymath (1564–1642)
Gemma Frisius
Frisian physician, mathematician and cartographer (1508–1555)
Georg Joachim Rheticus
Austrian astronomist and mathematician (1514–1574)
Georg von Peuerbach
Austrian mathematician and astronomer (1423-1461)
George Buchanan
Scottish historian and humanist scholar (1506-1582)
George Chapman
16th/17th-century English dramatist, poet, and translator
Georgius Agricola
German mineralogist (1494-1555)
Gerardus Mercator
Flemish geographer, cosmographer and cartographer (1512–1594)
Gerolamo Cardano
Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer (1501-1576)
Giambattista della Porta
Italian alchemist and dramatist (1535-1615)
Giordano Bruno
Italian Dominican friar, philosopher and mathematician (1548–1600)
Giovan Battista Hodierna
Italian astronomer
Giovanni Battista Riccioli
16th century Italian theologian and astronomer
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Italian Renaissance philosopher (1463–1494)
Girolamo Fracastoro
Italian physician
Girolamo Savonarola
Italian Dominican friar and preacher (1452-1498)
Guillaume Postel
French linguist, astronomer, diplomat and professor (1510–1581)
Gérard Desargues
French mathematician and engineer
Hans Lippershay
(1571-1619) German-Dutch spectacle-maker
Hans Tausen
Danish religious reformer
Heinrich Bullinger
Swiss reformer (1504–1575)
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
German polymath, physician, legal scholar and soldier (1486–1535)
H
Henry Briggs
British mathematician
Hugo Grotius
Dutch jurist and scholar (1583-1645)
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Spanish chronicler (1539-1616)
Ismail II
Safavid Shah of Iran from 1576 to 1577
James Ussher
Archbishop of Armagh (1581-1656)
Jami
Persian poet (1414–1492)
Jan Baptist van Helmont
chemist, physiologist, and physician from the Spanish Low Countries
Jan Długosz
Polish archbishop and historian
Jean Bodin
French jurist, witchcraft theorist and political philosopher (1529 or 1530–1596)
J
Jean Nicot
French diplomat and scholar (1530-1605)
Johann Adam Schall von Bell
German astronomer and Jesuit missionary active in China
J
Johann Bayer
German lawyer and uranographer
Johann Georg Faust
German Renaissance alchemist, astrologer, and magician
Johannes Kepler
German mathematician and astronomer (1571–1630)
John Amos Comenius
Czech teacher, educator, philosopher and writer (1592-1670)
John Dee
16th-century English mathematician, astrologer, and alchemist
John Napier
Scottish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer (1550–1617)
John Parkinson
English herbalist and botanist (1567-1650)
Joseph Justus Scaliger
French historian (1540-1609)
Joseph of Anchieta
Spanish Jesuit missionary (1534-1597)
Jost Bürgi
Swiss clockmaker, maker of astronomical instruments and mathematician (1552-1632)
João de Barros
Portuguese historian (1496 – 1570)
Juan de Herrera
Spanish architect (1530-1597)
Judah Loew ben Bezalel
Czech rabbi
Leon Battista Alberti
Italian architect and writer (1404-1472)
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian Renaissance polymath (1452−1519)
L
Lodovico Ferrari
Italian mathematician (1522–1565)
Luca Pacioli
Italian father of accounting (*~1445 – †1517)
Ludolph van Ceulen
German-Dutch mathematician (*1540 – †1610)
Luis de León
Spanish poet and Augustinian friar (1527-1591)
Luis de Molina
Spanish priest and writer
Marin Mersenne
French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as...
Marsilio Ficino
Italian philosopher and Catholic priest (1433–1499)
Martin Behaim
German navigator and geographer to the King of Portugal (1459–1507)
Martin Luther
German priest and theologian (1483–1546)
Matteo Ricci
Italian Catholic missionary (1552–1610)
Michael Servetus
Spanish physician and theologian
Michel de Montaigne
French author, philosopher, and statesman (1533–1592)
Mikael Agricola
Finnish clergyman and de facto founder of literary Finnish
Niccolò Machiavelli
Italian diplomat and political and military theorist (1469–1527)
Niccolò Tartaglia
Italian mathematician (1499–1557)
Nicholas of Cusa
German philosopher (1401 – 1464)
Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc
French astronomer (1580–1637)
Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish mathematician and astronomer (1473-1543)
Nostradamus
French seer and astrologer (1503–1566)
O
Olaus Magnus
Swedish writer
Paracelsus
Swiss physician, philosopher, theologian, and alchemist (c. 1493–1541)
Pedro Nunes
Portuguese mathematician (1502–1578)
Petrus Apianus
German astronomer, mathematician and cartographer (1495-1552)
Petrus Plancius
Dutch-Flemish astronomer, cartographer and clergyman
Philipp Melanchthon
German reformer (1497-1560)
Piero della Francesca
Italian painter and mathematician (c. 1416–1492)
Pierre Gassendi
French philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, priest, and scientist (*1592 – †1655)
Pietro Bembo
Catholic cardinal and poet (1470–1547)
Pius II
pope of the Catholic Church from 1458 to 1464 (1405–1464)
Regiomontanus
German mathematician and astronomer (1436–1476)
René Descartes
French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (1596–1650)
Robert Recorde
Welsh mathematician and inventor of the symbol '='
Rudolph Goclenius
German philosopher (1547-1628)
Sebastian Brant
German humanist and satirist
Sebastian Münster
German cartographer, cosmographer, and scholar (1488–1552)
Simon Marius
German astronomer (1573–1624)
Simon Stevin
Flemish mathematician, physicist and engineer (1548–1620)
Sophia Brahe
Danish horticulturalist
Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf
Ottoman Syrian polymath (1526-1585)
Teresa of Ávila
Roman Catholic saint (1515-1582)
Theodore Beza
French Reformed Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar (1519-1605)
Thomas Gresham
English merchant and financier (c. 1519 – 1579)
Thomas Harriot
British scientist (*~1560 – †1621)
Thomas Hobbes
English philosopher (1588–1679)
Thomas Linacre
English humanist scholar and physician (c.1460–1524)
Thomas More
English statesman, lawyer and philosopher (1478–1535)
T
Thomas Mun
English economist (1571–1641)
Tirso de Molina
Spanish writer (c. 1583-c.1648)
Tommaso Campanella
Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet (1568-1639)
Torquato Tasso
Italian poet (1544–1595)
Tulsidas
Hindu saint and poet (1532–1623), author of the Ramcharitmanas and Hanuman Chalisa
Tycho Brahe
Danish astronomer and alchemist, 1546–1601
Ulisse Aldrovandi
Italian naturalist (1522-1605)
Valerius Cordus
German physician, botanist, and author (1515-1544)
Vincenzo Scamozzi
16th century Italian architect (1548–1616)
Wilhelm Schickard
German astronomer, mathematician
Willebrord Snellius
Dutch astronomer and mathematician
William Caxton
English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer
William Gilbert
English physician, physicist and natural philosopher (1544-1603)
William Harvey
English physician (1578-1657)
William Oughtred
English mathematician and Anglican minister (1574–1660)
William Tyndale
English Bible translator and reformer
Xu Guangqi
late-Ming-dynasty Chinese politician, Scholar, Lay Catholic leader and Servant of God...
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Spanish explorer of the New World