Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Lucas van Leyden

Netherlands

c. 1494 – 1533 (39 years old)

Dutch Renaissance engraver and painter whose prodigious printmaking rivaled Albrecht Dürer and whose monumental 'The Last Judgment' hangs in Leiden's Museum De Lakenhal.

Leiden, Netherlands

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Monarchy

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Atahualpa

Ataw Wallpa

Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu)

c. 1502 – 1533-07-26 (31 years old)

Last sovereign Emperor (Sapa Inca) of Tawantinsuyu who triumphed in the Inca civil war, captured by Francisco Pizarro at Cajamarca in 1532, offering a room filled once with gold and twice with silver for his ransom.

Sigchos, Cotopaxi, Ecuador

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Literature & Poetry

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Ludovico Ariosto

Italy

1474 – 1533 (58 years old)

Italian Renaissance epic poet whose romantic epic Orlando Furioso wove chivalry, irony, and ottava rima into one of the most influential masterworks of world literature.

Ferrara, Italy

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Huldrych Zwingli

Switzerland

1484 – 1531 (47 years old)

Leader of the Reformation in Switzerland and pastor of the Grossmünster in Zurich who championed scripture as sole authority and viewed the Lord's Supper as a memorial.

Kappel am Albis, Switzerland

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Vallabhacharya

वल्लभाचार्य

India

1479 – 1531 (52 years old)

Indian devotional philosopher who founded the Shuddhadvaita (Pure Non-dualism) school of Vedanta and the Pushtimarg path of unconditional divine grace (Pushti).

Varanasi, India

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Babur

ظہیر الدین محمد بابر

Uzbekistan

1483 – 1530 (47 years old)

Central Asian conqueror, poet, and founder of the Mughal Empire in India, celebrated for defeating the Delhi Sultanate at the Battle of Panipat and authoring his candid autobiography Baburnama.

Kabul, Afghanistan

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Babur (Zahir al-Din Muhammad)

بابر / Zahīr al-Dīn Muhammad

Uzbekistan

1483 – 1530 (47 years old)

Founder of the Mughal Empire in India and author of the Baburnama, descended from Timur and Genghis Khan, who revolutionized warfare with artillery.

Kabul, Afghanistan

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Politics

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Margaret of Austria

Margaretha van Oostenrijk / Marguerite d'Autriche

Belgium

1480 – 1530 (50 years old)

Habsburg archduchess and brilliant diplomat who governed the Low Countries from Mechelen, raised the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and negotiated the 1529 'Ladies' Peace' (Treaty of Cambrai).

Bourg-en-Bresse, France

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Arts & Music

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Quentin Matsys

Quinten Matsijs

Belgium

c. 1466 – 1530 (64 years old)

Founder of the Antwerp school of painting whose masterwork 'The Moneylender and His Wife' established satirical secular genre painting and northern humanist portraiture.

Antwerp, Belgium

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Krishnadevaraya

ಶ್ರೀ ಕೃಷ್ಣದೇವರಾಯ (శ్రీ కృష్ణదేవరాయ)

India

1471 – 1529 (58 years old)

Greatest emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire (1509–1529) who presided over the golden age of South Indian architecture and literature, built the breathtaking temple monuments of Hampi, and authored the Telugu epic 'Amuktamalyada'.

Hampi (Bellary, Karnataka), India

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Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara

శ్రీ కృష్ణదేవరాయ

India

1471 – 1529 (58 years old)

Foremost emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire whose military prowess and cultural patronage initiated a golden age in southern Indian history.

Hampi, India

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Philosophy & Thought

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Wang Yangming (Wang Shouren)

王陽明 (王守仁)

China

31 October 1472 – 9 January 1529 (56 years old)

Ming general and philosopher who founded the School of Mind (Xinxue), proclaiming the unity of knowledge and action (zhixing heyi) and the innate moral conscience of every person.

Nan'an (Ganzhou, Jiangxi), China

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Abdallah al-Ghazwani

عبد الله الغزواني (مول القصور)

Morocco

c. 1460 – 1529 (~69 years old)

One of the Seven Saints of Marrakesh, revered as 'Moul El Ksour' (Master of Palaces), who combined Sufi metaphysics with hydraulic engineering, planting groves and digging wells across the Haouz plain.

Marrakesh, Morocco

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Sidi Abdallah al-Ghazwani

عبد الله الغزواني (مول القصور)

Morocco

c. 1460 – 1529 (~69 years old)

One of the Seven Saints of Marrakech, known as 'Moul El Ksour' (Master of the Palaces), who succeeded Sidi Abd al-Aziz al-Tebba' as leader of the Jazuliyya order and predicted the rise of the Saadian dynasty.

Marrakech, Morocco

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Arts & Music

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Albrecht Dürer

Germany

21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528 (56 years old)

Foremost genius of the Northern Renaissance who revolutionized woodcut and copper engraving into autonomous fine art forms, unified German gothic detail with Italian classical perspective, and pioneered artistic self-portraiture.

Nuremberg, Germany

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Balthasar Hubmaier

Germany

c. 1480 – 1528 (48 years old)

Pivotal Anabaptist theologian and former Catholic university rector who established believer's baptism in Waldshut and Nikolsburg and defended religious freedom in 'Heretics and Those Who Burn Them'.

Vienna, Austria

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Philosophy & Thought

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