17th Century Geniuses

Explore 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 • Centrifugal force • Collision formulae • Gambler's ruin • Pendulum c

IQ 190

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Isaac Newton

1643–1727 · England

Newtonian mechanics • Universal gravitation • Calculus • Newton's laws of motion • Optics • Binomial

IQ 190

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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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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 • Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence: With Selections from Fou

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 • 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 • Classification of systems of governme

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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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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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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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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Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon

1635–1719 · France

Second wife of Louis XIV.

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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Rembrandt

1606–1669 · Netherlands

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632) • Belshazzar's Feast (1635) • The Night Watch (1642)

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 • Microscopy • 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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17th Century Geniuses