Who were Shakespeare's contemporaries?
William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, at the same time as Galileo, Cervantes and Caravaggio.
William Shakespeare's lifespan is highlighted. The other bars show some notable contemporaries.
Meanwhile, in the same years.
One year, two calendars
Shakespeare and Cervantes both died in 1616. For centuries they were honoured together on 23 April, but England and Spain used different calendars, so the two deaths actually fell about ten days apart.
Born the same year
Shakespeare and Galileo were both born in 1564. One would write for the stage, the other would turn a telescope on the sky.
Opera takes shape
Monteverdi's L'Orfeo premiered in 1607, the earliest opera still regularly performed today. In those same years, Shakespeare's tragedies were being staged in London.
The Gunpowder Plot
In 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught with gunpowder beneath Parliament. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth soon after, steeped in the era's fear of treason and regicide.
This is one slice. Parallel shows the rest.
Parallel shows you contemporaries at a glance, across art, music, science and politics. For anyone you are curious about, you can see who lived at the same time.