Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Literature & Poetry

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Madame de La Fayette

Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de La Fayette

France

1634 – 1693 (59 years old)

French author whose 1678 masterpiece La Princesse de Clèves is universally recognized as the foundation of the modern psychological novel, famed for its spare, elegant prose and profound moral dilemma.

Paris, France

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Philosophy & Thought

37

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Zar Yaqob

ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ

Ethiopia

1599 – 1692 (92 years old)

Seventeenth-century Ethiopian philosopher whose 1667 treatise Hatata pioneered rationalist deconstructive philosophy and individual conscience years before John Locke and Spinoza.

Enfraz (near Gondar), Ethiopia

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Sciences & Discovery

40

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Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle

Ireland

25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691 (64 years old)

Founding Fellow of the Royal Society who formulated Boyle's Law of gas pressure and volume, and authored The Sceptical Chymist (1661), defining chemical elements as unmingled bodies.

London, United Kingdom

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Religious Figures & Theologians

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Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter

Great Britain

1615 – 1691 (76 years old)

English Puritan churchman, poet, and pastoral pioneer whose 'The Reformed Pastor' and 'The Saints' Everlasting Rest' set the gold standard for pastoral counseling and nonconformity.

London, United Kingdom

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Arts & Music

31

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Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp

Aelbert Cuyp

Netherlands

1620 – 1691 (71 years old)

Dutch Golden Age landscape master renowned for his golden Mediterranean evening light bathing pastoral scenes of cattle, horsemen, and rivers around Dordrecht.

Dordrecht, Netherlands

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Philosophy & Thought

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Kumazawa Banzan

熊沢 蕃山

Japan

1619 – 1691 (72 years old)

Visionary Edo-period Japanese philosopher of the Wang Yangming school (Oyomeigaku) who served as chief advisor in Okayama Domain and formulated the world's earliest comprehensive philosophy of ecological conservation and watershed management.

Koga (Ibaraki), Japan

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Humanitarian & Peace

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George Fox

George Fox

Great Britain

1 – 1691 (66 years old)

Fondateur de la Société religieuse des Amis (Quakers), précurseur de l'égalité spirituelle absolue et du témoignage pacifiste de non-violence.

Islington, London, United Kingdom

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Philosophy & Thought

23

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Al-Hasan al-Yusi

الحسن بن مسعود اليوسي

Morocco

1631 – 1691 (60 years old)

Towering 17th-century Moroccan intellectual, Sufi philosopher, and grammarian from the Middle Atlas who famously confronted Sultan Moulay Ismail with letters defending justice and the rights of subjects.

Sefrou, Morocco

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Art

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David Teniers the Younger

David Teniers de Jonge

Belgium

1610 – 1690 (79 years old)

Eminent Flemish painter and keeper of the royal art collection in Brussels who painted lively tavern kermesses, pioneering gallery interior paintings, and founded the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

Vorst (Forest, Brussels), Belgium

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Art

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Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun

France

1619 – 1690 (70 years old)

Dominant artistic dictator of the Grand Siècle who directed the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, headed the Gobelins Manufactory, and painted the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Paris, France

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Religion

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Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Boukrana

سيدي بوكرانة البنزرتي

Tunisia

c. 1620 AD – 1690 AD (~70 years old)

17th-century Sufi saint and patron of Bizerte, whose hermitage and zawiya overlooking the old canal and port of Bizerte provided refuge for sailors and impoverished fishermen.

Bizerte, Tunisia

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Politics

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Queen Christina

Kristina Augusta

Sweden

1626-12-18 – 1689-04-19 (62 years old)

Queen Regnant of Sweden (1632–1654) renowned as the 'Minerva of the North', who invited René Descartes to Stockholm, patronized European scholarship, and abdicated to live in Rome.

Vatican City, VA

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Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

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Queen Christina of Sweden

Drottning Kristina (Kristina Augusta)

Sweden

1626 – 1689 (62 years old)

Queen of Sweden, 'Minerva of the North', who ended the Thirty Years' War, shocked Europe by abdicating to convert to Catholicism, and lived as a patron in Rome.

Vatican City, Vatican City

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Prophets & Divine Messengers

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Michaelina Wautier

Michaelina Wautier / Woutiers

Belgium

1604 – 1689 (85 years old)

Extraordinary Flemish Baroque painter whose monumental masterpiece The Triumph of Bacchus demonstrated command over large-scale historical and mythological genres rarely permitted to women of her era.

Brussels, Belgium

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Religious Figures & Theologians

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John Bunyan

John Bunyan

Great Britain

1628 – 1688 (59 years old)

English Puritan preacher and author whose allegorical masterpiece 'The Pilgrim's Progress'—composed in Bedford Gaol—is one of the most published works in the history of world literature.

London, United Kingdom

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Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

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King Narai the Great

สมเด็จพระนารายณ์มหาราช

Thailand

1633 – 1688 (55 years old)

Cosmopolitan King of Ayutthaya whose reign represented the peak of foreign diplomacy, literature, and astronomy, sending historic royal embassies to King Louis XIV at Versailles.

Lopburi, Thailand

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Science

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Ferdinand Verbiest

Ferdinand Verbiest / 南懷仁

Belgium

1623 – 1688 (64 years old)

Flemish Jesuit mathematician and astronomer who served as director of the Imperial Observatory in Beijing, reformed the Chinese calendar, built modern astronomical instruments, and tutored the young Kangxi Emperor.

Beijing, China

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Arts & Music

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Jean-Baptiste Lully

Giovanni Battista Lulli

Italy

1632 – 1687 (54 years old)

Florentine-born French Baroque master who dominated music at the court of the Sun King Louis XIV, founded French opera (tragédie lyrique), and established orchestral discipline.

Paris, France

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