Who Was Alive

François Rabelais

16th-century French writer and humanist

Born 1494 · died 9 April 1553, aged 58 or 59

Who was alive at the same time as François Rabelais?

  1. Christopher Columbus
  2. Leonardo da Vinci
  3. Vasco da Gama
  4. Erasmus
  5. Niccolò Machiavelli
  6. Albrecht Dürer
  7. Nicolaus Copernicus
  8. Michelangelo
  9. Thomas More
  10. Ferdinand Magellan
  11. Raphael
  12. Martin Luther
  13. Hernán Cortés
  14. Mimar Sinan
  15. Jacques Cartier
  16. François Rabelais
  17. Suleiman the Magnificent
  18. Charles V
  19. John Calvin
  20. Michel de Montaigne
  21. Elizabeth I of England
  22. Akbar
  23. Miguel de Cervantes
  24. Giordano Bruno
Drag across the timeline to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When François Rabelais was born, Leonardo da Vinci was 41 or 42, Michelangelo was 18 or 19, Martin Luther was 10 or 11, Christopher Columbus was 42 or 43 and Niccolò Machiavelli was 24 or 25.

When François Rabelais died, Michelangelo was 78, Elizabeth I of England was 19, Akbar was 10, Jacques Cartier was 61 and Suleiman the Magnificent was 58.

Born during François Rabelais’s lifetime: Miguel de Cervantes, Elizabeth I of England, Akbar, Giordano Bruno, Michel de Montaigne, John Calvin, Charles V and Tycho Brahe.

Not quite contemporaries: William Shakespeare was born 11 years after François Rabelais died, Galileo Galilei was born 11 years after François Rabelais died, Francis Bacon was born 8 years after François Rabelais died and Lope de Vega was born 9 years after François Rabelais died.

Compare

All 59 contemporaries we track

  1. Leonardo da Vinci 1452 – 1519
  2. Michelangelo 1475 – 1564
  3. Martin Luther 1483 – 1546
  4. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  5. Christopher Columbus 1451 – 1506
  6. Niccolò Machiavelli 1469 – 1527
  7. Nicolaus Copernicus 1473 – 1543
  8. Ferdinand Magellan c. 1480 – 1521
  9. Raphael 1483 – 1520
  10. Albrecht Dürer 1471 – 1528
  11. Elizabeth I of England 1533 – 1603
  12. Vasco da Gama 1457–1469 – 1524
  13. Hernán Cortés 1485 – 1547
  14. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  15. Jacques Cartier 1491 – 1557
  16. Erasmus 1466 – 1536
  17. Suleiman the Magnificent 1494 – 1566
  18. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  19. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  20. Mimar Sinan c. 1490 – 1588
  21. John Calvin 1509 – 1564
  22. Thomas More c. 1478 – 1535
  23. Charles V 1500 – 1558
  24. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  25. Nostradamus 1503 – 1566
  26. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  27. Henry VIII of England 1491 – 1547
  28. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  29. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  30. Sandro Botticelli c. 1445 – 1510
  31. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  32. Amerigo Vespucci 1454 – 1512
  33. Luís de Camões 1524–1525 – 1580
  34. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  35. Titian c. 1490 – 1576
  36. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  37. Babur 1483 – 1530
  38. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  39. Guru Nanak 1469 – 1539
  40. Paracelsus 1493 – 1541
  41. Ignatius of Loyola 1489–1493 – 1556
  42. Anne Boleyn 1501 – 1536
  43. Alexander VI c. 1431 – 1503
  44. Isabella I of Castile 1451 – 1504
  45. Mary I 1516 – 1558
  46. Huldrych Zwingli 1484 – 1531
  47. Julius II 1443 – 1513
  48. Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  49. Edward VI of England 1537 – 1553
  50. Leo X 1475 – 1521
  51. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  52. Hieronymus Bosch c. 1450 – 1516
  53. Paul III 1468 – 1549
  54. Ludovico Ariosto 1474 – 1533
  55. Francis I of France 1494 – 1547
  56. Pieter Brueghel the Elder c. 1525 – 1569
  57. Pius V 1504 – 1572
  58. Ferdinand II of Aragon 1452 – 1516
  59. Francisco Pizarro c. 1478 – 1541