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Much of what we know about the Early Modern era comes from the writings of that time. With the proliferation of the printing press and a somewhat more literate population, much more literature of this period is preserved (as opposed to earlier times). Whether from a novel, play, travel journal or scientific paper, these writings add greatly to our knowledge of our history.
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Cross-listed in Clergy

Jonah Nabon

borndied
17131760
a rabbinical scholar; born at Jerusalem in 1713; died there 1760; son of Hanun Nabon. He was celebrated for his Talmudic and kabbalistic learning, and was the teacher of Chaim Joseph David Azulai (the Chida). Nabon wrote several works, of which only two have been published.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Astronomers

Valentin Naboth

borndied
1523, Feb 131593, Mar 3
a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. Naboth was the author of a general textbook on astrology Enarratio elementorum astrologiae. Renowned for calculating the mean annual motion of the Sun, his writings are chiefly devoted to commenting upon Ptolemy and the Arabian astrologers. Naboth teaches the calculation of the movement of the planets accord...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Artists

Nadar

aka: Gaspard-Félix, Felix, Tournachon
borndied
1820, Apr 61910, Mar 20
a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, and balloonist (or, more accurately, proponent of manned flight). Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the great national collections of photographs. From work as a caricaturist, he moved on to photography, particularly portraits. He opened his photography studio in rue Saint Lazare in...
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Jacques-Andre Naigeon

aka: Jacques-André
borndied
1738, Jul 151810, Feb 28
a French artist, atheist philosopher, editor and man of letters best known for his contributions to the Encyclopédie and for reworking Baron d'Holbach's and Denis Diderot's manuscripts.
Links (1)


Mustafa Naima

borndied
16551716
an Ottoman bureaucrat and historian who wrote the chronicle known as the Ta'rikh-i Naima (Naima's History). He is often considered to be the first official historian of the Ottoman Empire, although this formal office was probably not created until the time of his successor, Rashid.
Links (1)


Nali

aka: Nalî, Mullah Xidir Ehmed ?awaysî Mîkayalî
borndied
17971856
a Kurdish polymath; a poet, linguist, translator and mathematician, who is considered to be one of the greatest Kurdish poets in the Kurdish classical period.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Guru Nanak

borndied
14691539
the founder of Sikhism and the first of the Sikh Gurus and Punjabi Poet. Nanak’s teachings can be found in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib, as a vast collection of revelatory verses recorded in Gurmukhi.
Links (1)


Rhys Nanmor

bornactivedied
unknown1480-1513unknown
a Welsh language poet who lived in Nanmor, near Beddgelert in North Wales. Among his surviving work is a prophecy to King Henry VII of England and an elegy on the death of Arthur, Prince of Wales, who died in 1502.
Links (1)


Thomas Nashe

bornactivedied
15671588-15991601 ca
considered the greatest of the English Elizabethan pamphleteers, also a playwright, poet, and satirist. His first appearance in print was his preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon, which offers a brief definition of art and overview of contemporary literature.
Links (11)


Cross-listed in Physicians

Mohammed ibn Nasir

borndied
16031674
a theologian, scholar and physician, especially interested in mental disorders. He wrote several works of fikh, some poetry, and hundreds of letters and treatises on Islamic law.
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Cross-listed in ArtistsInventorsScientistsCartographersEducators

Matrakci Nasuh

aka: Matrakçi
borndied
14801564 ca
a 16th-century Bosniak statesman of the Ottoman Empire, polymath, mathematician, teacher, historian, geographer, cartographer, swordmaster, navigator, inventor, painter, farmer, and miniaturist. He was brought to Istanbul after being recruited by the Ottoman scouts in Rumelia, educated, served several Ottoman sultans, and became a teacher at Enderun School.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Governance

Robert Naunton

bornactivedied
15631606-16261635, Mar 27
an English writer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1606 and 1626. He was educated at Norwich School and Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow of his college in 1585 and public orator of the university in 1594. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, commissioned him to spend some time abroad, sending information abo...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Governance

Marguerite de Navarre

aka: Marguerite of Angoulême, Margaret of Navarre
borndied
1492, Apr 111549, Dec 21
the princess of France, Queen of Navarre, and Duchess of Alençon and Berry. She was married to Henry II of Navarre. Her brother became King of France, as Francis I, and the two siblings were responsible for the celebrated intellectual and cultural court and salons of their day in France. Marguerite is the ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, being the...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

James Nayler

aka: Naylor
borndied
16161660
an English Quaker leader. He is among the members of the Valiant Sixty, a group of early Quaker preachers and missionaries. At the peak of his career, he preached against enclosure and the slave trade. In 1656, Nayler achieved national notoriety when he re-enacted Christ's entry into Jerusalem by entering Bristol on a donkey. He was imprisoned and charged wi...
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Cross-listed in GovernanceEducators

Thomas Neale

bornactivedied
16411664-16981699
an English project-manager and politician who was also the first person to hold a position equivalent to postmaster-general of the North American colonies. Neale was a Member of Parliament for thirty years, Master of the Mint and the Transfer Office, Groom of the Bedchamber, gambler, and entrepreneur. His wide variety of projects included the development ...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Architects

Christian Heinrich Nebbien

aka: Heinrich Nebbien, Henrik Nebbien
bornactivedied
17781783-1830s1841
a German-born landscaping architect, mainly active in Austria. He also wrote a book on the methods of increasing agricultural output, published in Prague in 1835.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Scientists

Louis Necker

aka: de Germany
borndied
1730, Aug 311804, Jul 31
an 18th-century Swiss mathematician. The elder brother of the statesman Jacques Necker, Louis Necker studied mathematics at the Academy of Geneva. He finished his studies in philosophy with a thesis on electricity (1747), then graduated in law (1751). He later was appointed governor of the princes of Nassau and de Lippe-Detmold during their stay in Geneva an...
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Links (1)


Nedim

aka: Ahmet Nedîm Efendi
borndied
1681?1730
the pen name of one of the most celebrated Ottoman poets. He achieved his greatest fame during the reign of Ahmed III, the so-called Tulip Era from 1718 to 1730. Both his life and his work are often seen as being representative of the relaxed attitude and European i...
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Links (1)


Gerard de Nerval

aka: Gérard, Gérard Labrunie
bornactivedied
1808, May 221824-18551855, Jan 26
the nom-de-plume of the French writer, poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie. A major figure of French romanticism who worked in many genres, he is best known for his poems and novellas, especially the collection Les Filles du feu (The Daughters of Fire), which includes the novella Sylvie and the poem El Desdichado.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Antoine de Nerveze

aka: Nervèze
borndied
1570 ca1622 ca
a French nobleman and writer of novels, translations, letters and moral works at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. Along with his novels, Nervèze wrote numerous works of moral philosophy, and his moral and religious philosophy is evident in most of his works, including the novels. His Catholicism is mixed with elements of stoicism and...
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Links (1)


Nesati

aka: Nesâtî
borndied
unknown1674
an Ottoman poet. He was a Sufi, or Islamic mystic, of the Mevlevi order, and his poetry is often considered exemplary of the Indian style of Ottoman poetry, a movement which flourished beginning in the 17th century.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Daniel Nettelbladt

borndied
1719, Jan 141791, Sep 4
a German jurist and philosopher. Nettelbladt studied theology and law at the universities of Rostock, Marburg and Halle, where he became a doctor of law in 1744. In 1746 he became a full professor of jurisprudence in Halle, and a royal Prussian privy aulic councillor.
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Cross-listed in Scientists

Caspar Neumann

aka: Neuman
borndied
1683, Jul 111737, Oct 20
a German/Polish chemist and apothecary. In 2009, Alexander Kraft established that it was Caspar Neumann who conveyed the secret formula for preparing the first synthetic pigment, Prussian blue, to the Royal Society in England in 1723.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

John Henry Newman

borndied
18011890
an important figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s. Also a writer, poet, and hymnist.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in AstronomersInventors

Isaac Newton

bornactivedied
1642, Dec 251665-17261726, Mar 20
an English physicist and mathematician (described in his own day as a "natural philosopher") who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687, l...
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Timeline (7)Links (21)


Cross-listed in ClergyNaval

John Newton

borndied
1725, Jul 241807, Dec 21
an English sailor, in the Royal Navy for a period, and later a captain of slave ships. He became ordained as an evangelical Anglican cleric, served Olney, Buckinghamshire for two decades, and also wrote hymns, known for "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken".
Links (1)


John Frank Newton

bornactivedied
177018111825
Helped begin vegetarian movement with The Return to Nature, or a defence of the vegetable regimen in 1811.


Henry Nicholis

borndied
1501 ca1580 ca
a German mystic and founder of the Christian sect "Familists" (a.k.a. "Family of Love","Familia Caritatis" or "Hus der Lieften"). Most of his writings come from his time at Emden. His primary work was Den Spegel der Gherechticheit dorch den Geist der Liefden unde den vergodeden Menscit I-IN. uth de hernmelisc tie Warheit betuget. It appeared in an English fo...
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Links (1)


Clarina I. H. Nichols

borndied
1810, Jan 251885, Jan 11
a journalist, lobbyist and public speaker involved in all three of the major reform movements of the mid-19th century: temperance, abolition, and the women's movement that emerged largely out of the ranks of the first two. Though prominent enough in her time to merit her own chapter in Anthony's History of Woman Suffrage, Nichols has been overlooked since 19...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

Christoph Friedrich Nicolai

borndied
1733, Mar 181811, Jan 11
a German writer and bookseller. Nicolai was born in Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the bookseller Nicolaische Buchhandlung. He received a good education, and in 1749 went to Frankfurt (Oder) to learn his father's business, finding time also to become acquainted with English literature. In 1752 Nicolai retur...
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Links (1)


Pierre Nicole

borndied
1625, Oct 191695, Nov 16
one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists and writer. Many stories are told of his quaint absent-mindedness and unreadiness in conversation. His books are distinguished by exactly opposite qualities; they are neat and orderly to excess.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

David Nieto

bornactivedied
16541702-17281728, Jan 10
the Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in London, later succeeded in this capacity by his son, Isaac Nieto. In 1702 Nieto succeeded Solomon Ayllon as ecclesiastical chief of the Portuguese Jews in London; and two years after his settlement in that city he published his theological treatise, Della Divina Providencia, ó sea Naturalezza Unive...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Isaac Nieto

borndied
17021774
the Haham of the Portuguese congregation Sha'are Hashamayim, Bevis Marks, London, and the son of David Nieto. He was officially appointed as "hakham ha-shalem" in 1733, but gave up the post in 1741 and went abroad. He returned in 1747 and took up the profession of notary. Nieto preached on February 6, 1756, the day of fast and penitence ordered by the king, ...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Artists

Willem van Nieulandt II

borndied
15831635
a Dutch Golden Age painter, engraver, poet and playwright from Antwerp. He specialized in painting artistic ruins of monuments, arches, and temples, many of which he then engraved himself. He returned to Amsterdam (via Antwerp) in 1607, and became a respected poet there as well as Italianate painter. Nieulandt was better known as a poet and playwright than ...
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Nishiyama Soin

borndied
16051682
a haikai-no-renga poet of the early Tokugawa period. He founded the Danrin school of haikai poetry, which aimed to move away from the serious 'bookishness' popular in Japanese poetry at the time and become more in touch with the common people, infusing a spirit of greater freedom into their poetry.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Petar II Petrovic Njegos

borndied
18131851
a Prince-Bishop (vladika) of Montenegro, poet and philosopher whose works are widely considered some of the most important in Montenegrin and Serbian literature.
Links (1)


Emily Nonnen

borndied
18121905
a British-Swedish writer, translator and artist who wrote novels for young adults and translated English literature to Swedish, among them Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in ExplorersNaval

Frederic Louis Norden

aka: Frederick, Frederik, Friderick, Ludwig, Ludvig and Lewis
borndied
1708, Oct 221742, Sep 22
a Danish naval captain and explorer. Norden made a voyage through Egypt all the way down to Sudan in 1737–1738, on the request of King Christian VI of Denmark. Norden made abundant notes, observations and drawings of everything around him, including people, pharaonic monuments, architecture, installations, maps etc., all of which was published in the posth...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht

borndied
1718, Nov 281763, Jun 29
a Swedish poet, feminist and salon hostess. She has been called the first self-supporting female writer in Sweden. In 1742, she debuted as a published author with Svenska fruntimrets klagan (The Lament of the Swedish Woman), a poem over queen Ulrika Eleonora. The same year she applied for a pension from the admiralty after her late spouse. Her application wa...
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Cross-listed in Clergy

Sylvester Norris

borndied
1571 ca1630, Mar 16
an English Roman Catholic controversial writer and missionary priest. In the prosecutions following upon the Gunpowder Plot, Norris was committed to the Bridewell. From his prison he addressed a letter to the Earl of Salisbury, dated 1 December 1605, in which he protests his innocence, and in proof of his loyalty promises to repair to Rome, and labor so that...
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Solomon Northup

borndied
1807/08, Jul 101863 ca
an American abolitionist and the primary author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave. A free-born African American from New York, he was the son of a freed slave and free woman of color. A farmer and professional violinist, Northup had been a landowner in Hebron, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. (where s...
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Caroline Norton

borndied
18081877
an English feminist, social reformer, and author of the early and mid-nineteenth century. Her first book, The Sorrows of Rosalie (1829), was well received. The Undying One (1830), a romance founded upon the legend of the Wandering Jew soon followed.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Thomas Norton

borndied
15321584, Mar 10
an English lawyer, politician, writer of verse. From his eighteenth year Norton began to compose verse. With Jasper Heywood he was a writer of "sonnets"; he contributed to Richard Tottel's Miscellany, and in 1560 he composed, in company with more
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Cross-listed in ArtistsSculptors

Cyprian Norwid

borndied
18211883
a nationally esteemed Polish poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor. One of his maternal ancestors was the Polish King John III Sobieski. Norwid is regarded as one of the second generation of romantics. He wrote many well-known poems. Esoteric opinion is divided however, as to whether he was a true Romanticist artist – or if he was artistically ahead of h...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Physicians

Michel de Nostradamus

aka: Nostredame
bornactivedied
1503, Dec 141521-15661566, Jul 2
a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with m...
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Timeline (1)Links (19)


Novalis

aka: Friedrich von Hardenberg
borndied
17721801
a poet, author, and philosopher of early German Romanticism. Hardenberg's professional work and university background, he had studied mineralogy and managed salt mines in Saxony, was often ignored by his contemporary readers.
Links (1)


Jean-Georges Noverre

borndied
1727, Apr 291810, Oct 19
a French dancer and balletmaster, and is generally considered the creator of ballet d'action, a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century. His birthday is now observed as International Dance Day.
Links (1)


Nozawa Boncho

borndied
1640 ca1714
a Japanese haikai poet, born in Kanazawa, and spent most of his life in Kyoto working as a doctor. Boncho was one of Matsuo Basho's leading disciples and, together with Kyorai, he edited the Basho school's Monkey's Raincoat (Sarumino) anthology of 1689. He participated in numerous renku with Basho and other members of his Shomon school.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Governance

Robert Nugent

aka: 1st Earl Nugent
bornactivedied
17091739-17881788, Oct 13
an Irish politician and poet. He was tersely described by Richard Glover as a jovial and voluptuous Irishman who had left popery for the Protestant religion, money and widows. His wife's property included the borough of St Mawes in Cornwall, and Nugent sat for that constituency from 1741 to 1754, after which date he represented Bristol until 1774, when he re...
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Links (1)


Thomas Nugent

bornactivedied
1700 ca1749-17721772, Apr 27
an erudite Irish historian and travel writer. Today he is known most of all for his travelogue of the Grand Tour, which was at that time popular particularly among English noblemen taking educational tours through Europe. His detailed descriptions of the France, Italy, German, and the Netherlands of the time provide a rich source for historians of the situat...
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Links (1)


Hernan Nunez

aka: Hernán Núñez
borndied
14751553
a Spanish humanist, classicist, philologist, and paremiographer. He wrote a gloss on the Laberinto de Fortuna by Juan de Mena, which appeared in two editions. In 1508, he collected and glossed a diverse body of proverbs and adages, first published in Seville. In 1509, he translated into Castilian Enea Silvio Piccolomini's History of Bohemia. In 1519, he publ...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Explorers

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca

aka: Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
bornactivedied
1490 ca1520s-1540s1557 ca
a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish colonial forces in Mexico in 1536. After returning to Spain in 1537, he wrote an account, first publishe...
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Julia Nyberg

borndied
17841854
a Swedish poet and songwriter. Nyberg grew up as the adoptive daughter of a mill owner, named Adlerwald, in the parish of Skultuna in Västmanland County. She wrote the vast majority of her works under the pseudonym Euphrosyne.
Links (1)

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