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17th Century Geniuses

Brilliant minds born in the 17th century

92 Geniuses

17th Century Geniuses

Explorer 92 geniuses born in the 17th Century (1600–1699), a transformative era in human knowledge and achievement.

Athanasius Kircher
1602–1680 · Germany
IQ 190
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Christiaan Huygens
1629–1695 · Netherlands
Explanation of Saturn's rings <br> Centrifugal force <br> Collision formulae <br> Gambler's ruin <br
IQ 190
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Voltaire
1694–1778 · France
The novel Candide
IQ 190
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Isaac Newton
1643–1727 · England
Newtonian mechanics <br> Universal gravitation <br> Calculus <br> Newton's laws of motion <br> Optic
IQ 190
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Blaise Pascal
1623–1662 · France
Pascal's law
IQ 185
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Otto von Guericke
1602–1686 · Germany
vacuum, atmospheric pressure, Electrostatics
IQ 185
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Pierre Louis Maupertuis
1698–1759 · France
Principle of least action, precursor of transmutation
IQ 185
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Robert Boyle
1627–1691 · Ireland
Boyle's law and Corpuscularianism
IQ 185
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1646–1716 · Germany
Discourse on Metaphysics,Théodicée, integral calculus
IQ 182
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Alexander Pope
1688–1744 · United Kingdom
The Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism, His translation of Homer.
IQ 180
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Denis Papin
1647–1713 · France
Steam digester
IQ 180
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François Fénelon
1651–1715 · France
The Adventures of Telemachus
IQ 180
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George Berkeley
1685–1753 · United Kingdom
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
IQ 180
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Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
1627–1704 · France
IQ 180
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John Toland
1670–1722 · Ireland
Christianity not Mysterious (1696)
IQ 180
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John Locke
1632–1704 · United Kingdom
Being known as the "Father of Liberalism"
IQ 180
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Willem Jacob 's Gravesande
1688–1742 · Netherlands
Developing experimental demonstrations of the laws of classical mechanics.
IQ 180
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Antoine Arnauld
1612–1694 · France
Being one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal.
IQ 175
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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
1632–1723 · Netherlands
Being the first acknowledged microbiologist.
IQ 175
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Baruch Spinoza
1632–1677 · Netherlands
Ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, Hebrew grammar
IQ 175
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Edmond Halley
1656–1742 · United Kingdom
For the prediction of Halley’s comet, solving the riddle of accurate navigation for all sea-going ve
IQ 175
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Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
1678–1751 · United Kingdom
Supporting the Jacobite rebellion of 1715
IQ 175
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Jacob Bernoulli
1655–1705 · Switzerland
Ars Conjectandi
IQ 175
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Nicolas Malebranche
1638–1715 · France
His doctrines of vision in God, occasionalism and ontologism.
IQ 175
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Pierre de Fermat
b. 1607 · France
Fermat's Last Theorem
IQ 175
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Thomas Browne
1605–1682 · England
Religio Medici, Urne-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Christian Morals
IQ 175
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Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
1671–1713 · England
IQ 170
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Christian Thomasius
1655–1728 · Germany
Essays on Church, State, and Politics <br> Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence: With Selections from
IQ 170
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Francis Atterbury
1663–1732 · England
IQ 170
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François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)
1613–1680 · France
MemoirsMaximes
IQ 170
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Georg Ernst Stahl
1659–1734 · Germany
Phlogiston theory <br> Fermentation
IQ 170
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Jean Meslier
1664–1729 · France
Being one of the earliest proponents of atheism
IQ 170
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Jean Racine
1639–1699 · France
Andromaque, Phèdre, Athalie
IQ 170
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Johann Joachim Becher
1635–1682 · Germany
Phlogiston theory
IQ 170
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John Ray
1627–1705 · United Kingdom
Being one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists
IQ 170
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Nicolaas Hartsoeker
1656–1725 · Netherlands
Contributions to microscopy, preformationism
IQ 170
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Pedro Calderón de la Barca
1600–1681 · Spain
IQ 170
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Pietro Metastasio
1698–1782 · Italy
Demetrio, Olimpiade, Demofoonte, La clemenza di Tito, and Attilio Regolo
IQ 170
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Richard Bentley
1662–1742 · England
Dissertation on the Letters of Phalaris (1699)
IQ 170
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William Penn
1644–1718 · United Kingdom
IQ 170
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Montesquieu
1689–1755 · France
Separation of state powers: executive, legislative, judicial <br> Classification of systems of gover
IQ 165
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Christopher Wren
1632–1723 · United Kingdom
Designer of 54 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many notable secular build
IQ 165
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Daniel Defoe
1660–1731 · United Kingdom
Robinson Crusoe
IQ 165
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Emanuel Swedenborg
1688–1772 · Sweden
Hs book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758)
IQ 165
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François Quesnay
1694–1774 · France
IQ 165
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George Frideric Handel
1685–1759 · Germany
Messiah
IQ 165
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Gilbert Burnet
1643–1715 · Scotland
IQ 165
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Herman Boerhaave
1668–1738 · Netherlands
Founder of clinical teaching
IQ 165
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Jean de La Bruyère
1645–1696 · France
French philosopher, moralist, and satirist,
IQ 165
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Johann Sebastian Bach
1685–1750 · Germany
Goldberg Variations, The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor
IQ 165
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John Law
1671–1729 · Scotland
Scottish economist; believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth
IQ 165
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Joseph Addison
1672–1719 · England
Founding the The Spectator magazine.
IQ 165
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Ludvig Holberg
1684–1754 · Norway
Norwegian writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright.
IQ 165
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Marcello Malpighi
1628–1694 · Italy
Complete Works
IQ 165
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Pierre Bayle
1647–1706 · France
Various Thoughts on the Occasion of the Comet
IQ 165
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Christian Wolff
1679–1754 · Germany
Theoretical philosophy has for its parts ontology (also philosophia prima or general metaphysics) an
IQ 160
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John Bunyan
1628–1688 · England
The Pilgrim's Progress, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman, The Holy War
IQ 160
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John Dryden
1631–1700 · England
The Hind and the Panther
IQ 160
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Cardinal Mazarin
1602–1661 · Italy
French statesman.
IQ 160
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Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné
1626–1696 · France
Her 1,120 letters, addressed to her daughter over the course of 30 years, noted for their wit and vi
IQ 160
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Molière
1622–1673 · France
Tartuffe; The Misanthrope; The Learned Women; The School for Wives; L'Avare
IQ 160
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Pierre Corneille
1606–1684 · France
Le Cid
IQ 160
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Ralph Cudworth
1617–1688 · England
IQ 160
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Samuel Clarke
1675–1729 · United Kingdom
English philosopher and Anglican clergyman; was a Boyle anti-atheism lecturer for two years.
IQ 160
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George Fox
1624–1691 · England
Founding the Religious Society of Friends,
IQ 155
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Jean de La Fontaine
1621–1695 · France
Fables
IQ 155
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Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon
1635–1719 · France
Second wife of Louis XIV.
IQ 155
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Richard Baxter
1615–1691 · England
The Reformed Pastor
IQ 155
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Robert Walpole
1676–1745 · United Kingdom
English statesman.
IQ 155
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William Warburton
1698–1779 · United Kingdom
English prelate, theological controversialist, and critic.
IQ 155
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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
1617–1682 · Spain
The Young Beggar, The Angel's Kitchen, Virgin of the Rosary, Two Women at a Window and The Vision of
IQ 150
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Benoît de Maillet
1656–1738 · France
Telliamed
IQ 150
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Rembrandt
1606–1669 · Netherlands
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632) <br> Belshazzar's Feast (1635) <br> The Night Watch (
IQ 150
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Giulio Alberoni
1664–1752 · Italy
Being the cardinal under Philip V of Spain
IQ 145
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John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
1650–1722 · United Kingdom
Serving under 5 monarchs
IQ 145
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William Hogarth
1697–1764 · United Kingdom
A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode
IQ 145
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George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle
1608–1670 · England
Restoration of the monarchy to King Charles II in 1660
IQ 140
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Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban
1633–1707 · France
French military engineer and marshal.
IQ 140
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Francesco Redi
1626–1697 · Italy
Experimental biology Parasitology Criticism of spontaneous generation
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Georg Brandt
1694–1768 · Sweden
Discovery of cobalt
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Hennig Brand
1630–1710 · Germany
Discovered phosphorus, becoming the first named person in history to discover a chemical element.
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John Wallis
1616–1703 · England
The development of infinitesimal calculus.
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John Milton
1608–1674 · United Kingdom
Paradise Lost
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Jonathan Swift
1667–1745 · United Kingdom
A Tale of a Tub Drapier's Letters Gulliver's Travels A Modest Proposal
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Nicolas Steno
1638–1686 · Denmark
A founder of modern geology; established some of its fundamental principles, including the law that
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Robert Hooke
1635–1703 · England
Hooke's law <br> Microscopy <br> Coining the term 'cell'
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William Wotton
1666–1727 · United Kingdom
The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.
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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
1648–1695 · Mexico
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Guillaume de l'Hôpital
1661–1704 · France
Infinitesimal calculus Differential geometry of curves L'Hôpital's rule
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Jacob Bernoulli
1655–1705 · Switzerland
Bernoulli differential equationBernoulli numbersBernoulli's formulaBernoulli polynomialsBernoulli ma
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James Bernoulli
1654–1705 · Switzerland
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Isaac Barrow
1630–1677 · England
Fundamental theorem of calculusOptics
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Questions Fréquentes

How many geniuses were born in the 17th Century?

Geniuses.Club features 92 geniuses born during the 17th Century.

Who was the greatest genius of the 17th Century?

The 17th Century produced many extraordinary minds. Explorer the full list to discover who made the greatest impact.

What major fields emerged in the 17th Century?

The 17th Century saw transformative developments across science, mathematics, art, philosophy, and technology.

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