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1596, Mar 311619-16501650, Feb 11
a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. Dubbed the father of modern western philosophy, much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. He spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic. Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes's influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system—allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two- or three-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations)—was named after him.
 Timeline (1)
06/08/1637-Rene Descartes publishes his Discourse on the Method for Guiding One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences, the source of the famous quote, “I think, therefore I am.”
 Mentions (4)
Adrien Baillet
...and critic. He is now best known as a biographer of Rene Descartes. In 1676 he was ordained priest and was presented...
David Derodon
...He had frequent discussions with the followers of Rene Descartes. He kept up a close correspondence with many learned...
Henri Louis Habert de Montmor
...French scholar and man of letters. An avid supporter of Rene Descartes, Habert wrote a poem on Cartesian physics entitled...
Nicolas Malebranche
...sought to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Rene Descartes, in order to demonstrate the active role of God...
 Contemporaries
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Rene Descartes1596, Mar 311619
 
16501650, Feb 11

Kyrillos III Loukarisunknown1601
 
1620unknown
 Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria for the Greek Orthodox Church (1601-1620). He co-authored many l...
Thomas Harriot1560 ca1580
 
16211621, Jul 2
 an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. He is sometimes credited with...
William Strachey1572, Apr 41605
 
16211621, Jun 21
 an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English ...
Richard Argallunknown1621
 
 
1621unknown
 a poet, of whom little is known, and whose existence is disputed. His name appears on the title-p...
Pedro Paez15641589
 
16221622, May 25
 a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Ethiopia. Páez is considered by many experts on Ethiopia to be th...
Ottavio Codognounknown1599
 
1623unknown
 the deputy postmaster general of the Duchy of Milan and author of an extensive guidebook to the p...
John Brinsley the Elderunknown1581
 
1624unknown
 an English schoolmaster, known for his educational works. His best-known work is Ludus Literarius...
George Chapman1559 ca1596
 
16241634, May 12
 an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influ...
Ericus Erici Sorolainen15461583
 
16251625
  a Finnish Lutheran bishop, a Bishop of Turku from 1583 to 1625 as the successor to Paulus Juuste...
King James I1566, Jun 191603
 
16251625, Mar 27
  King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland (and Supreme Head...
John Fletcher [1]1579, Dec1606
 
16251625, Aug
 a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he w...
Willem Schouten1567 ca1615
 
16251625
 a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route ...
Francis Bacon1561, Jan 221579
 
16261626, Apr 9
 an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served both...
Robert Naunton15631606
 
16261635, Mar 27
 an English writer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1606 an...
Thomas Smith [1]unknown1600
 
1627unknown
 an English soldier. Smith as he styles himself on the title-page of the first edition (4to, 1600)...
John Preston1587, Oct1611
 
16271628, Jul 20
 an Anglican cleric and master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. About 1611, the year in which he co...
Samuel Rowlands1573 ca1598
 
16281630
 an English author of pamphlets in prose and verse, which reflect the follies and humours of lower...
George Silverunknown1550
 
1629unknown
 a gentleman of England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who is known for his writin...
Johannes Buxtorf1564, Dec 251589
 
16291629, Sep 13
 a celebrated Hebraist, member of a family of Orientalists; professor of Hebrew for thirty-nine ye...
Oliver Almondunknown1590
 
1629unknown
 a Roman Catholic priest and writer, born in the diocese of Oxford. He is believed by Foley to hav...
Thomas Beardunknown1590
 
16291632
 an English clergyman and theologian, of Puritan views. He is known as the author of The Theatre o...
Nicolas de Cardonaunknown1610
 
1629unknown
 a Spanish entrepreneur and adventurer with residence in Seville, who was involved in the explorat...
John Ashmoreunknown1620
 
 
1629unknown
  the first who attempted a translation into English of selected odes of Horace. In 1621 he publis...
Alonso Fernandez de Avellanedaunknown1620
 
 
1629unknown
 the pseudonym of a man who wrote a sequel to Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. The identity of Fe...
Diego Beltran Hidalgounknown1620
 
 
1629unknown
  a seventeenth century Spanish Marrano poet. The son of a Jew from Murcia, he was noted as an edi...
Patrick Scotunknown1620
 
 
1629unknown
 a Scottish official, tutor and author. He followed James VI of Scotland to England on his accessi...
Johannes Kepler1571, Dec 271594
 
16301630, Nov 15
 a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific r...
Edmund Howesunknown1607
 
1631unknown
 an English chronicler. Howes lived in London, and designated himself "gentleman". Undeterred by J...
Randle Cotgraveunknown1590
 
16321634
 an English lexicographer who in 1611 compiled and published A Dictionarie of the French and En...
Henry Wotton1568, Mar 301588
 
16331639, Dec
 an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. Of 2...
John Harrison [1]unknown1610
 
1633unknown
 an English representative in Morocco in the 17th century. James I of England sent John Harrison t...
George Abbot1562, Oct 191611
 
16331633, Aug 5
 an English divine who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1611 to 1633 for the Church of England. H...
Felix Lope de Vega1562, Nov 251594
 
16341635, Aug 27
 a Spanish playwright, poet and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Cent...
John Marston1576, Oct 71598
 
16341634, Jun 25
 an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. His ca...
Geoffrey Keating1569 ca1603
 
16341644 ca
 a 17th-century historian. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and is buried in Tubrid Grave...
Patrick Andersonunknown1618
 
1635unknown
 a physician and author. Anderson was the author of ‘The Colde Spring of Kinghorne Craig’ (161...
Peregrine O Duibhgeannainunknown1627
 
 
1636unknown
 an Irish historian and chronicler. Nothing is known of his life and activities until he began wor...
Seamus O Siaghailunknown1636
 
 
1636unknown
 an Irish scribe. Ó Siaghail was a member of the Ó Siadhail bardic family that had lived in Uí ...
Fearfeasa O'Mulconryunknown1636
 
 
1636unknown
 an Irish chronicler. He contributed to The Annals of the Four Masters. He belonged to a family of...
William Alabaster1567, Feb 271592
 
16371640, Apr 28
 an English poet, playwright, and religious writer. He became a Roman Catholic convert in Spain wh...
Ben Jonson1572, Jun 111598
 
16371637, Aug 6
 an English playwright, poet, actor and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerte...
Robert Fludd1574, Jan 171605
 
16371637, Sep 8
 a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is rememb...
Galileo Galilei1564, Feb 151581
 
16381642, Jan 8
 an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who played a major rol...
Johann Heinrich Alsted1588, Mar1608
 
16381638, Nov 9
 a German Calvinist minister and academic, known for his varied interests: in Ramism and Lullism, ...
Nicholas Bradshaweunknown1630
 
 
1639unknown
 an English writer. Very little is known about the details of his life. He was a fellow of Balliol...
Robert Beaumontunknown1639
 
 
1639unknown
 Master of Trinity College Cambridge from 1561 to 1567 and twice Vice-Chancellor of the University...
Xu Xiake1587, Jan 51607
 
16401641, Mar 8
 a Chinese travel writer and geographer of the Ming Dynasty, known best for his famous geographica...
Richard Bernard15681598
 
16411641
 an English Puritan clergyman and writer. Barnard was a Calvinist Puritan, but a moderate one. Ber...
Edward Finchunknown1630
 
 
1641unknown
 an English Royalist divine. On 9 December 1630 Edward was admitted to the vicarage of Christ Chur...
James Shirley1596, Sep1625
 
 
16421666, Oct
 an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lam...
Sir John Suckling1609, Feb 101631
 
 
16421642 ca
 an English poet and a prominent figure among those renowned for careless gaiety and wit, the acco...
Charles de Valois1573, Apr 281589
 
16431650, Sep 24
 a French royal bastard, count of Auvergne, duke of Angoulême, and memoirist. Charles de Valois w...
Joseph Hall1574, Jul 11597
 
16431656, Sep 8
 an English bishop, satirist and moralist. His contemporaries knew him as a devotional writer, and...
Francisco Pacheco15711611
 
16441654
 a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez and Alonzo Can...
Hugo Grotius1583, Apr 101599
 
16451645, Aug 28
 a Dutch jurist. Along with the earlier works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotiu...
John Abbot1587/881623
 
 
16471650 ca
 an English Roman Catholic clergyman and poet. His birthplace is uncertain, but may have been Lond...
Thomas Edwards [2]1599 ca1625
 
 
16471647
 an English Puritan clergyman. He was a very influential preacher in London of the 1640s, and also...
Feardorcha O Meallainunknown1641
 
 
1647unknown
 an Irish poet the reputed author of An Díbirt go Connachta. He is said to have been a Franciscan...
Matthew Hopkins1620 ca1644
 
 
16471647, Aug 12
 an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold ...
Anthony Knivetunknown1591
 
1649unknown
 an English sailor who fell into Portuguese hands in Brazil, lived for a while with a native Brazi...
Fearfeasa O Maol Chonaireunknown1620
 
 
1649unknown
 co-compiler and scribe of the Annals of the Four Masters. As a young man, he participated in the ...
Andre du Ryer1580 ca1630
 
 
16491660/1672
 a French orientalist who wrote the third western translation of the Qur'an. He was a diplomatic a...
Jasper Fisher15911630
 
 
1649unknown
 an English divine and dramatist. About 1631 (according to Anthony Wood) he became rector of Wilsd...
William Druryunknown1640
 
 
1649unknown
 an English dramatist. Drury was an English gentleman "of singular parts and learning". He was for...
Edmund Gregory1615 ca1640
 
 
1649unknown
 an English author. The son of Henry Gregory, rector of, and benefactor to, Sherrington, Wiltshire...
Naftali Hertzunknown1640
 
 
1649unknown
 a German rabbi, born in Frankfurt, author of the controversial work Emeq HaMelekh (Valley of the ...
Anna Humeunknown1640
 
 
1649unknown
 a Scottish translator, poet and writer. Controversy surrounded her publication of History of the ...
James Yorkeunknown1640
 
 
1649unknown
 an English heraldic writer. He wrote a compilation on heraldry and genealogy that appeared in fol...
Niccolo Cabeo1586, Feb 261620
 
16501650, Jun 30
 an Italian Jesuit philosopher, theologian, engineer and mathematician. He is noted for his contri...
Tarlach O Meallainunknown1641
 
1650unknown
 an Irish Franciscan, author of Cín Lae Uí Mhealláin. Tarlach was the chaplain to Felim ...
John Selden1584, Dec 161612
 
16521654, Nov 30
 an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish ...
John Smith [3]16181644
 
16521652, Aug 7
 an English philosopher, theologian, and educator. Smith entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1...
Pierre Gassendi1592, Jan 221617
 
16531655, Oct 24
 a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. While he held a church po...
Theodore Tronchin1582, Apr 171608
 
16551657, Nov 19
 a Swiss Calvinist theologian, controversialist and Hebraist. He studied theology at Geneva, Basel...
Edward Fisherunknown1627
 
1655unknown
 an English theological writer. He is generally considered the author of The Marrow of Modern Divi...
Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld16051629
 
16551655, Feb 16
 a German philosopher, logician and encyclopedic writer from Siegen. A follower of Ramus and pupil...
Margherita Costa1600 ca1628
 
16571657
 a singer, poet, playwright and feminist, is the most Baroque of the seventeenth-century Italian w...
Menasseh Ben Israel16041632
 
16571657, Nov 20
 a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, writer, diplomat, printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebr...
Henry Cockeramunknown1623
 
1658unknown
 an English lexicographer. In 1623, he authored the third known English Language dictionary, and t...
Henry Robinson1604 ca1640
 
16591664 ca
 an English merchant and writer. He is best known for a work on religious toleration, Liberty of C...
Blaise Pascal1623, Jun 191642
 
16591662, Aug 19
 a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher. He was a child pro...
Anthony Jenkinson15291550
 
1661610/1611
 one of the first Britons to explore Muscovy and present day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and...
Saul Levi Morteira1596 ca1616
 
16601660, Feb 10
 a Dutch rabbi of Portuguese descent. Morteira was the founder of the congregational school Keter ...
Claude Lancelot1615 ca1638
 
16601695
 Born in Paris, later to become a Jansenist monk and grammarian. Helped to establish the Petites ...
Nathaniel Bacon [3]1593, Dec 121645
 
16601660
 an English Puritan lawyer, writer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times...
Thomas Fuller16081630
 
16611661, Aug 16
 an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his Worth...
Laurence Clarkson16151646
 
16611667
 an English theologian and accused heretic. He was the most outspoken and notorious of the loose c...
Robert Abbot [1]1588 ca1610
 
16621662 ca
 an English theologian who promoted puritan doctrines. He is sometimes mistakenly described as the...
William Aspinwallunknown1648
 
1662unknown
  a nonconformist English minister. He proceeded B.A. in 1657, but having obtained orders, went no...
Cu Choigcriche O Cleirighunknown1624
 
1664unknown
 an Irish historian and genealogist, known in English as Peregrine O'Clery. Along with Brother Mí...
Mildmay Fane1602, Jan 241621
 
16661666, Feb 12
 an English nobleman, politician, and writer. One hundred and thirty seven poems by Fane appeared ...
William Day1605 ca1624
 
16661684
 an English cleric and biblical commentator. He received his education at Eton College. He was ele...
Jean Ogier de Gombauld15761624
 
16661666
 a French playwright and poet. Gombauld was born in Saint-Just-Luzac, Charente-Maritime and was a ...
Ismael Bullialdus1605, Sep 281632
 
16671694, Nov 25
 a famous astronomer and mathematician during the seventeenth century. He published several books,...
Pierre Corneille1606,Jun 61629
 
16681684, Oct 1
 a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French ...
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier16051630
 
16681689
 a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveler. Tavernier, a private individual and merchant tra...
John Wilkins1614, Feb 141637
 
16681672, Nov 19
 an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal S...
John Knowles [1]unknown1646
 
1668unknown
 an English antitrinitarian preacher, imprisoned in 1665. A short paper of arguments for the deity...
John Trapp1601, Jun 51622
 
16691669, Oct 16
 an English Anglican Bible commentator. His large five-volume commentary is still read today and i...
William Prynne16001627
 
16691669, Oct 24
 an English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. He was a prominent Puritan opponent ...
John Webb16111628
 
16691672, Oct 24
 an English architect and scholar. In 1654 Webb designed the first classical portico on an English...
Madeleine de Souvre15991640
 
16691678, Jan 16
 a French writer, was the daughter of Gilles de Souvré, marquis de Courtenvaux, tutor of Louis XI...
William Broughunknown1630
 
16711671
 an English royalist churchman, Dean of Gloucester from 1643. Brough was a supporter of William La...
Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisighunknown1640
 
1671unknown
 an Irish scribe, translator, historian and genealogist. He was one of the last traditionally trai...
Ingen Ryuki1592, Dec 71620
 
16731673, May 19
 a Chinese Linji Chán Buddhist monk, poet, and calligrapher. He is most known for founding the Ob...
Adam Vaclav Michna z Otradovic1600, Jun 301633
 
16731676, Oct 16
 a Czech Catholic aristocrat, poet, composer, hymn writer, organist and choir leader of the early ...
Salvator Rosa1615, Jun 20/Jul 211634
 
16731673, Mar 15
 an Italian Baroque painter, poet, and printmaker, who was active in Naples, Rome, and Florence. A...
Moliere1622, Jan 151643
 
16731673, Feb 17
 a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in We...
Robert Herrick1591, Aug1623
 
16741674, Oct
 a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is best known for Hesperides, a book of poems. T...
John Milton1608, Dec 91623
 
16741674, Nov 8
 an English poet, polemicist, and man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of Engl...
Thomas Hobbes1588, Apr 51608
 
16751679, Dec 4
 an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book L...
Roger Williams1603, Dec 21 ca1628
 
16761683, Jan-Mar
 a Puritan, an English Reformed theologian, and later a Reformed Baptist who was expelled by the P...
Gian Lorenzo Bernini1598, Dec 71609
 
16781680, Nov 28
 an Italian artist and a prominent architect who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sc...
Thomas Adyunknown1630
 
1679unknown
 an English physician and humanist who was the author of three sceptical books on witchcraft and w...
Thomas Watson [2]1620 ca1646
 
16791686
 an English, Nonconformist, Puritan preacher and author. He showed strong Presbyterian views durin...
George Hartgillunknown1590
 
168unknown
 an English astronomer. Hartgill was in considerable repute during Elizabeth I's reign, from his k...
Denzil Holles1599, Oct 311624
 
16801680, Feb 17
 an English statesman and writer, best known as one of the Five Members whose attempted unconstitu...
Thomas Browne1605, Oct 191637
 
16821682, Oct 19
 an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields i...
Guarino Guarini1624, Jan 71648
 
16831683, Mar 6
 an Italian architect of the Piedmontese Baroque and Theatine priest, mathematician, and writer. H...
Edmund Waller1606, Mar 31624
 
16861687, Oct 21
 an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and ...
John Bunyan1628, Nov1644
 
16881688, Aug 31
 an English writer and Baptist preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory
John Evelyn1620, Oct 311640
 
16941706, Feb 27
 an English writer, gardener and diarist. Evelyn's diaries, or memoirs, are largely contemporaneou...
Jacques-Benigne Bossuet1627, Sep 271643
 
17011704, Apr 12
 a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been conside...
Roger L'Estrange1616, Dec 171639
 
17021704, Dec 11
 an English pamphleteer, author and staunch defender of Royalist claims. L'Estrange was involved i...
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