Who Was Alive

Nostradamus

French seer and astrologer

Born 14 December 1503 · died 2 July 1566, aged 62

Who was alive at the same time as Nostradamus?

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 Nostradamus was born, Leonardo da Vinci was 51, Michelangelo was 28, Martin Luther was 20, Christopher Columbus was 51 or 52 and Niccolò Machiavelli was 34.

When Nostradamus died, William Shakespeare was 2, Galileo Galilei was 2, Francis Bacon was 5, Elizabeth I of England was 32 and Akbar was 23.

Born during Nostradamus’s lifetime: William Shakespeare, Galileo Galilei, Miguel de Cervantes, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth I of England, Akbar, Giordano Bruno and Michel de Montaigne.

Not quite contemporaries: Johannes Kepler was born 6 years after Nostradamus died, Peter Paul Rubens was born 11 years after Nostradamus died, Caravaggio was born 5 years after Nostradamus died and Alexander VI died months before Nostradamus was born.

Compare

All 65 contemporaries we track

  1. William Shakespeare 1564 – 1616
  2. Leonardo da Vinci 1452 – 1519
  3. Galileo Galilei 1564 – 1642
  4. Michelangelo 1475 – 1564
  5. Martin Luther 1483 – 1546
  6. Miguel de Cervantes c. 1547 – 1616
  7. Christopher Columbus 1451 – 1506
  8. Niccolò Machiavelli 1469 – 1527
  9. Nicolaus Copernicus 1473 – 1543
  10. Ferdinand Magellan c. 1480 – 1521
  11. Raphael 1483 – 1520
  12. Francis Bacon 1561 – 1626
  13. Albrecht Dürer 1471 – 1528
  14. Elizabeth I of England 1533 – 1603
  15. Vasco da Gama 1457–1469 – 1524
  16. Hernán Cortés 1485 – 1547
  17. Akbar 1542 – 1605
  18. Jacques Cartier 1491 – 1557
  19. Erasmus 1466 – 1536
  20. Suleiman the Magnificent 1494 – 1566
  21. Giordano Bruno 1548 – 1600
  22. Michel de Montaigne 1533 – 1592
  23. Mimar Sinan c. 1490 – 1588
  24. John Calvin 1509 – 1564
  25. François Rabelais 1494 – 1553
  26. Thomas More c. 1478 – 1535
  27. Charles V 1500 – 1558
  28. Lope de Vega 1562 – 1635
  29. Tycho Brahe 1546 – 1601
  30. Francis Drake c. 1540 – 1596
  31. Henry VIII of England 1491 – 1547
  32. Ivan the Terrible 1530 – 1584
  33. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525 – 1594
  34. Sandro Botticelli c. 1445 – 1510
  35. El Greco 1541 – 1614
  36. Amerigo Vespucci 1454 – 1512
  37. Luís de Camões 1524–1525 – 1580
  38. Philip II of Spain 1527 – 1598
  39. Titian c. 1490 – 1576
  40. Teresa of Ávila 1515 – 1582
  41. Babur 1483 – 1530
  42. Mary, Queen of Scots 1542 – 1587
  43. Guru Nanak 1469 – 1539
  44. Paracelsus 1493 – 1541
  45. Ignatius of Loyola 1489–1493 – 1556
  46. Anne Boleyn 1501 – 1536
  47. Henry IV of France 1553 – 1610
  48. Isabella I of Castile 1451 – 1504
  49. Mary I 1516 – 1558
  50. Christopher Marlowe c. 1564 – 1593
  51. Huldrych Zwingli 1484 – 1531
  52. Julius II 1443 – 1513
  53. James VI and I 1566 – 1625
  54. Gregory XIII 1502 – 1585
  55. Edward VI of England 1537 – 1553
  56. Leo X 1475 – 1521
  57. Torquato Tasso 1544 – 1595
  58. Hieronymus Bosch c. 1450 – 1516
  59. Paul III 1468 – 1549
  60. Ludovico Ariosto 1474 – 1533
  61. Francis I of France 1494 – 1547
  62. Pieter Brueghel the Elder c. 1525 – 1569
  63. Pius V 1504 – 1572
  64. Ferdinand II of Aragon 1452 – 1516
  65. Francisco Pizarro c. 1478 – 1541