Who Was Alive

John Donne

English poet and cleric

Born 1572 · died 31 March 1631, aged 58 or 59

Who was alive at the same time as John Donne?

  1. Mimar Sinan
  2. Michel de Montaigne
  3. Elizabeth I of England
  4. Francis Drake
  5. Akbar
  6. Miguel de Cervantes
  7. Tycho Brahe
  8. Giordano Bruno
  9. Francis Bacon
  10. Lope de Vega
  11. Galileo Galilei
  12. William Shakespeare
  13. Johannes Kepler
  14. John Donne
  15. Peter Paul Rubens
  16. Thomas Hobbes
  17. René Descartes
  18. Diego Velázquez
  19. Oliver Cromwell
  20. Rembrandt
  21. John Milton
  22. Jean de La Fontaine
  23. Molière
  24. Blaise Pascal
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 John Donne was born, William Shakespeare was 7 or 8, Galileo Galilei was 7 or 8, Francis Bacon was 10 or 11, Elizabeth I of England was 38 or 39 and Johannes Kepler was about a year old.

When John Donne died, Galileo Galilei was 67, René Descartes was 35, Molière was 9, Rembrandt was 24 and Blaise Pascal was 7.

Born during John Donne’s lifetime: René Descartes, Molière, Rembrandt, Blaise Pascal, Peter Paul Rubens, Diego Velázquez, Thomas Hobbes and John Milton.

Not quite contemporaries: Isaac Newton was born 12 years after John Donne died, Michelangelo died 8 years before John Donne was born, John Locke was born about a year after John Donne died and Matsuo Bashō was born 13 years after John Donne died.

Compare

All 57 contemporaries we track

  1. William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616
  2. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  3. René Descartes 1596 – 1650
  4. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  5. Molière 1622 – 1673
  6. Rembrandt 1606 – 1669
  7. Blaise Pascal 1623 – 1662
  8. Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
  9. Elizabeth I of England 1533 – 1603
  10. Johannes Kepler 1571 – 1630
  11. Peter Paul Rubens 1577 – 1640
  12. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  13. Diego Velázquez 1599 – 1660
  14. Thomas Hobbes 1588 – 1679
  15. John Milton 1608 – 1674
  16. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  17. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  18. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  19. Mimar Sinan c. 1490 – 1588
  20. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  21. Oliver Cromwell 1599 – 1658
  22. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  23. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  24. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  25. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  26. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  27. Caravaggio 1571 – 1610
  28. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  29. Pierre de Fermat 1607 – 1665
  30. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  31. Luís de Camões 1524–1525 – 1580
  32. Charles I of England 1600 – 1649
  33. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  34. Titian c. 1490 – 1576
  35. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  36. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  37. Pierre Corneille 1606 – 1684
  38. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  39. Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu 1585 – 1642
  40. Pedro Calderón de la Barca 1600 – 1681
  41. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  42. Abel Tasman 1603 – 1659
  43. Christopher Marlowe c. 1564 – 1593
  44. Shah Jahan 1592 – 1666
  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. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  50. Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  51. Louis XIII of France 1601 – 1643
  52. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  53. William Harvey 1578 – 1657
  54. Hugo Grotius 1583 – 1645
  55. Evangelista Torricelli 1608 – 1647
  56. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665
  57. Urban VIII 1568 – 1644