Leonardo da Vinci
1452 – 1519 · 67 years · Florence · Europe
Universal genius of the Renaissance who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper; his notebooks brim with inventions.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Attributed to Francesco Melzi · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 21 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 23 years younger
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 31 years younger
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 52 years older
- Maximilian I — "the Last Knight", who raised the Habsburgs through shrewd marriages, 7 years younger
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 1 year older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 12 years older
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 27 years younger
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 3 years younger
- Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 37 years older
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 20 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 18 years younger
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 42 years younger
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 53 years younger
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 5 years older
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 9 years older
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi — Adal imam and general, 54 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 17 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 17 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 16 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 31 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 14 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshizumi — puppet shogun of the Hosokawa clan, 29 years younger
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 1 year older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 14 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 28 years younger
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 32 years younger
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 33 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 34 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — aged 1, Middle East
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 26, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 28, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 36, Africa
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — aged 40, Americas
- 1492 Fall of Granada — aged 40, Europe
- 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas — aged 42, Europe
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — aged 46, Asia
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — aged 49, Middle East
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 56, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 59, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 65, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 67, Americas