Mercurino Arborio marchese di Gattinara was an Italian statesman and jurist. Gattinara was a Christian, humanist, imperialist, and conservationist. He was made a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in 1529. Gattinara initially served as t...

Ahmed Muhiddin Piri, better known as Piri Reis, was an Ottoman admiral, geographer, and cartographer. He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book that contains de...

Alonso de Ojeda was a Spanish navigator, governor and conquistador. Ojeda accompanied Christopher Columbus in his second voyage to the New World in 1493. He distinguished himself there by his daring in battle with the natives, towards whom,...

Moctezuma or Montezuma II was an Aztec ruler, leader of the Aztec Triple Alliance from c. 1502–1520. He is famous for being the ruler of the Aztec empire at the start of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The portrayal of Moctezuma in histo...

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among h...

Andrea Doria was a Genoese statesman, mercenary, and admiral, the foremost naval commander of his time. A member of an aristocratic family, he was orphaned at an early age and became a soldier of fortune. In 1522 he entered the service of F...

Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Port...

Paul III, Alessandro Farnese was Pope from 1534 to 1549. He also called the Council of Trent in 1545. Born Alessandro Farnese in Canino, Latium, Italy, the peculiar day of February 29, he was descended through his mother from the Caetani fa...

Manuel I, the Fortunate, 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves. Manuel would prove a worthy successor to his cousin King John II, supporting the Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the development of Portuguese commerce. Durin...

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was for many years an official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilit...

Guru Nanak was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November. Guru Nanak has been ca...

Charles VIII, called the Affable, was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois. His invasion of Italy initiated the long series of Franco-Italian wars which characterized the first half of t...

Martin Waldseemüller was a German cartographer and humanist scholar. Sometimes known by the Latinized form of his name, Hylacomylus, his work was influential among contemporary cartographers. He and his collaborator Matthias Ringmann are cr...

Pánfilo de Narváez (1470 or 1478 - 1528) was a Spanish conquistador and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first embarked to Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camag...

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen was a Northern Netherlandish designer of woodcuts and painter. He was one of the first important artists working in Amsterdam, at a time when it was a flourishing provincial town. In his earlier years Jacob...