Who Was Alive

René Descartes

French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Born 31 March 1596 · died 11 February 1650, aged 53

Who was alive at the same time as René Descartes?

  1. Elizabeth I of England
  2. Akbar
  3. Miguel de Cervantes
  4. Giordano Bruno
  5. Francis Bacon
  6. Lope de Vega
  7. Galileo Galilei
  8. William Shakespeare
  9. Johannes Kepler
  10. Peter Paul Rubens
  11. Thomas Hobbes
  12. René Descartes
  13. Diego Velázquez
  14. Rembrandt
  15. John Milton
  16. Jean de La Fontaine
  17. Molière
  18. Blaise Pascal
  19. John Locke
  20. Benedictus de Spinoza
  21. Louis XIV of France
  22. Isaac Newton
  23. Matsuo Bashō
  24. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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 René Descartes was born, William Shakespeare was 31, Galileo Galilei was 32, Francis Bacon was 35, Elizabeth I of England was 62 and Johannes Kepler was 24.

When René Descartes died, Isaac Newton was 7, Molière was 28, John Locke was 17, Rembrandt was 43 and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 3.

Born during René Descartes’s lifetime: Isaac Newton, Molière, John Locke, Rembrandt, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Matsuo Bashō, Blaise Pascal and Louis XIV of France.

Not quite contemporaries: Daniel Defoe was born 9 years after René Descartes died, Michel de Montaigne died 4 years before René Descartes was born, Mimar Sinan died 8 years before René Descartes was born and Francis Drake died months before René Descartes was born.

Compare

All 56 contemporaries we track

  1. William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616
  2. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  3. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  4. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  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. Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
  12. Elizabeth I of England 1533 – 1603
  13. Johannes Kepler 1571 – 1630
  14. Louis XIV of France 1638 – 1715
  15. Benedictus de Spinoza 1632 – 1677
  16. Peter Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640
  17. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  18. Diego Velázquez 1599 – 1660
  19. Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
  20. John Milton 1608 – 1674
  21. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  22. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  23. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  24. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  25. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  26. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  27. Jean Racine 1639 – 1699
  28. Caravaggio 1571 – 1610
  29. Johannes Vermeer 1632 – 1675
  30. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  31. Pierre de Fermat 1607 – 1665
  32. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  33. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  34. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  35. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  36. Pierre Corneille 1606 – 1684
  37. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  38. Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  39. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  40. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  41. Abel Tasman 1603 – 1659
  42. Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703
  43. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  44. John Donne 1572 – 1631
  45. Charles II of England 1630 – 1685
  46. John Amos Comenius 1592 – 1670
  47. François de La Rochefoucauld 1613 – 1680
  48. James VI and I 1566 – 1625
  49. John Dryden 1631 – 1700
  50. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  51. Louis XIII of France 1601 – 1643
  52. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  53. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  54. Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647
  55. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  56. Urban VIII 1568 – 1644