Who Was Alive
John Bunyan
Thomas Sadler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Bunyan

English writer and preacher

Born 28 November 1628 · died 31 August 1688, aged 59
Also known as Joannes Bunyan

Who was alive at the same time as John Bunyan?

  1. Galileo Galilei, 1564 – 1642
  2. Johannes Kepler, 1571 – 1630
  3. Peter Paul Rubens, 1577 – 1640
  4. Thomas Hobbes, 1588 – 1679
  5. René Descartes, 1596 – 1650
  6. Diego Velázquez, 1599 – 1660
  7. Rembrandt, 1606 – 1669
  8. John Milton, 1608 – 1674
  9. Jean de La Fontaine, 1621 – 1695
  10. Molière, 1622 – 1673
  11. Blaise Pascal, 1623 – 1662
  12. John Bunyan, 1628 – 1688
  13. John Locke, 1632 – 1704
  14. Baruch Spinoza, 1632 – 1677
  15. Louis XIV, 1638 – 1715
  16. Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727
  17. Matsuo Bashō, 1644 – 1694
  18. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716
  19. Daniel Defoe, c. 1661 – 1731
  20. Jonathan Swift, 1667 – 1745
  21. Peter the Great, 1672 – 1725
  22. Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 – 1741
  23. George Frideric Handel, 1685 – 1759
  24. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When John Bunyan was born, Galileo Galilei was 64, René Descartes was 32, Molière was 6, Rembrandt was 22 and Blaise Pascal was 5.

When John Bunyan died, Isaac Newton was 45, Johann Sebastian Bach was 3, John Locke was 55, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 42 and Matsuo Bashō was 43 or 44.

Born during John Bunyan’s lifetime: Isaac Newton, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Matsuo Bashō, Louis XIV, Peter the Great and Baruch Spinoza.

Not quite contemporaries: William Shakespeare died about 12 years before John Bunyan was born, Voltaire was born about 6 years after John Bunyan died, Miguel de Cervantes died about 12 years before John Bunyan was born and Francis Bacon died about 2 years before John Bunyan was born.

What happened in John Bunyan’s lifetime

Where John Bunyan’s contemporaries were born

John Bunyan is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare John Bunyan

The 150 best-known contemporaries

170 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as John Bunyan. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1658.

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  3. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  4. René Descartes 1596 – 1650
  5. Molière 1622 – 1673
  6. John Locke 1632 – 1704
  7. Rembrandt 1606 – 1669
  8. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  9. Matsuo Bashō 1644 – 1694
  10. Blaise Pascal 1623 – 1662
  11. Johannes Kepler 1571 – 1630
  12. Louis XIV 1638 – 1715
  13. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  14. Baruch Spinoza 1632 – 1677
  15. Peter Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640
  16. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  17. Diego Velázquez 1599 – 1660
  18. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  19. Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
  20. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  21. John Milton 1608 – 1674
  22. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  23. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  24. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  25. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  26. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  27. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  28. Jean Racine 1639 – 1699
  29. Johannes Vermeer 1632 – 1675
  30. Pierre de Fermat 1607 – 1665
  31. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  32. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  33. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  34. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  35. Pierre Corneille 1606 – 1684
  36. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  37. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  38. Cardinal Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  39. Abel Tasman 1603 – 1659
  40. Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703
  41. John Donne 1572 – 1631
  42. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  43. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  44. John Amos Comenius 1592 – 1670
  45. François de La Rochefoucauld 1613 – 1680
  46. Charles II of England 1630 – 1685
  47. John Dryden 1631 – 1700
  48. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  49. Louis XIII 1601 – 1643
  50. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  51. Anne, Queen of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  52. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  53. Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647
  54. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  55. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  56. Pope Urban VIII 1568 – 1644
  57. William III of England 1650 – 1702
  58. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  59. James II of England 1633 – 1701
  60. Joseph Addison 1672 – 1719
  61. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  62. Claudio Monteverdi 1567 – 1643
  63. Ben Jonson 1572 – 1637
  64. Miyamoto Musashi 1584 – 1645
  65. Emanuel Swedenborg 1688 – 1772
  66. Christina, Queen of Sweden 1626 – 1689
  67. Christopher Wren 1632 – 1723
  68. Pope Clement XII 1652 – 1740
  69. Pope Innocent XI 1611 – 1689
  70. Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 1636 – 1711
  71. George I of Great Britain 1660 – 1727
  72. Abbas the Great 1571 – 1629
  73. Gustavus Adolphus 1594 – 1632
  74. Anthony van Dyck 1599 – 1641
  75. John III Sobieski 1629 – 1696
  76. Vitus Bering 1681 – 1741
  77. Francisco de Quevedo 1584 – 1645
  78. Philip IV of Spain 1605 – 1665
  79. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit 1686 – 1736
  80. Pope Innocent X 1574 – 1655
  81. Cardinal Mazarin 1602 – 1661
  82. Charles II of Spain 1661 – 1700
  83. Francisco de Zurbarán c. 1598 – 1664
  84. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo 1617 – 1682
  85. Pope Benedict XIII 1649 – 1730
  86. Pope Clement X 1590 – 1676
  87. Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1598 – 1680
  88. Pope Alexander VII 1599 – 1667
  89. Pope Clement IX 1600 – 1669
  90. Pope Alexander VIII 1610 – 1691
  91. Pope Innocent XII 1615 – 1700
  92. Ole Rømer 1644 – 1710
  93. Pope Clement XI 1649 – 1721
  94. Pope Innocent XIII 1655 – 1724
  95. Mary II 1662 – 1694
  96. Giambattista Vico 1668 – 1744
  97. Charles XII of Sweden 1682 – 1718
  98. Philip V of Spain 1683 – 1746
  99. Catherine I of Russia 1684 – 1727
  100. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 1685 – 1740
  101. Giovanni Domenico Cassini 1625 – 1712
  102. Jean de La Bruyère 1645 – 1696
  103. Jacob Bernoulli c. 1655 – 1705
  104. Tommaso Campanella 1568 – 1639
  105. Aphra Behn 1640 – 1689
  106. Baltasar Gracián c. 1603 – 1658
  107. Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651 – 1695
  108. Samuel de Champlain c. 1570 – 1635
  109. Iskandar Muda 1583 – 1636
  110. Artemisia Gentileschi 1593 – 1653
  111. Murad IV 1612 – 1640
  112. Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire 1615 – 1648
  113. Johann Bernoulli 1667 – 1748
  114. Georg Philipp Telemann 1681 – 1767
  115. Alexis of Russia 1629 – 1676
  116. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1640 – 1705
  117. Mehmed IV 1642 – 1693
  118. Maria Sibylla Merian 1647 – 1717
  119. Pierre Bayle 1647 – 1706
  120. Mustafa I 1591 – 1639
  121. Michael of Russia 1596 – 1645
  122. Suleiman II 1642 – 1691
  123. Ahmed III 1673 – 1736
  124. Sigismund III Vasa 1566 – 1632
  125. Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor 1578 – 1637
  126. Guru Gobind Singh 1666 – 1708
  127. Shivaji 1627 – 1680
  128. François Fénelon 1651 – 1715
  129. Jean-Philippe Rameau 1683 – 1764
  130. Antoine Watteau 1684 – 1721
  131. Mumtaz Mahal 1593 – 1631
  132. Bohdan Khmelnytsky 1595 – 1657
  133. Cyrano de Bergerac c. 1619 – 1655
  134. Jean-Baptiste Lully 1632 – 1687
  135. Prince Eugene of Savoy 1663 – 1736
  136. Domenico Scarlatti 1685 – 1757
  137. Frans Hals 1580s – 1666
  138. Jusepe de Ribera 1591 – 1652
  139. Ivan Mazepa 1639 – 1709
  140. Mustafa II 1664 – 1703
  141. Marie de' Medici 1575 – 1642
  142. Ahmed II 1643 – 1695
  143. Henry Purcell 1659 – 1695
  144. Blackbeard c. 1680 – 1718
  145. Christian IV of Denmark 1577 – 1648
  146. Jean-Baptiste Colbert 1619 – 1683
  147. William Penn 1644 – 1718
  148. Arcangelo Corelli 1653 – 1713
  149. George Herbert 1593 – 1633
  150. Francesco Borromini 1599 – 1667