Monument for Jaakko Ilkka, the Finnish leader in the Cudgel War (Nuijasota in Finnish, 1596-1597) in Ilmajoki, Finland. Photo credit to Antti Helin
In the year 1597, Bali is discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman (Feb), the last battle of the Cudgel War is fought on the Santavuori Hill in Ilmajoki, Ostrobothnia (Feb 24), a Dutch expedition returns to Amsterdam after having successfully reached Java, breaking the Portuguese monopoly on Spice trade (Aug 14), Alchemia, a pioneering chemistry textbook, is published by the German polymath Andreas Libavius, Jacopo Peri writes Dafne, now recognised as the first opera - and all these fine people were born:
1597-0112 François Duquesnoy* Flemish Baroque sculptor/active in Rome - Brussels (1643/46)
1597-0131 John Francis Regis* priest/ preacher/best known for his work with at-risk women and orphans - Fontcouverte, Kingdom of France (1640/43)
1597-0224 Vincent Voiture* poet/ writer - Amiens, Kingdom of France (1648/51)
1597-0301 Jean-Charles della Faille* Flemish Jesuit priest/mathematician - Antwerp, Spanish Empire (1652/55)
1597-0310 Ercole Gennari* Italian painter - Cento, Emilia-Romagna (1658/61)
1597-0318 Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière* nobleman/ helped to establish the French colony of Montreal - La Flèche, Maine, Kingdom of France (1659/62)
1597-0327 William Hyde* (b Bayart) Roman Catholic convert and priest/President of the English College in Douai, France - London, England (1651/54)
1597-0409 John Davenport* Puritan clergyman/co-founder of the American colony of New Haven /to America at age 40 - Coventry, Warwickshire, England (1670/73)
1597-0413 Giovanni Battista Hodierna* astronomer - Ragusa, Sicily, Italy (1660/62)
1597-0423 Alvise Contarini* patrician/ diplomat - Venice, Republic of Venice (1651/53)
1597-0513 Cornelis Schut* Flemish painter/engraver/tapestry designer - Antwerp, Spanish Empire (1655/57)
1597-0515 Squire Bence* merchant/ seafarer/politician - England (1648/51)
1597-0531 Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac* author/known for his epistolary essays, which were widely circulated and read in his day - Angoulême, Kingdom of France (1654/56)
1597-0609 Pieter Jansz. Saenredam* Dutch painter - Assendelft (1665/67)
1597-0702 Theodoor Rombouts* painter - Antwerp, Spanish Empire (1637/40)
1597-0713 Sebastian Stoskopff* Alsatian still life painter - Strasbourg, Holy Roman Empire (1657/59)
1597-0722 Virgilio Mazzocchi (B) Italian composer - Veja, near Civita Castellana (1646/49)
1597-0820 Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic* Polish poet/historian/w Armenian background - Lwów (1677/80)
1597-0821 Roger Twysden* nobleman/ historian/politician - Roydon Hall, Kent, England (1672/74)
1597-0923 Francesco Barberini* Italian Cardinal/nephew of a Pope - Florence (1679/82)
1597-0928 Justus Sustermans* Flemish portrait painter - Antwerp, Spanish Empire(1681/83)
1597-1007 John Underhill* early English settler/soldier/governor in the Massachusetts Bay Colony/to America at age 32 - Baginton, Warwickshire, England (1672/74)
1597-1013 Otto Louis of Salm-Kyrburg-Mörchingen* German-Swedish army general - (1634/36)
1597-1020 Matthew Hutton* politician/MP - England (1666/68)
1597-1119 Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate* Electress of Brandenburg - Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria (1660/62)
1597-1211 Richard Everett* one of the founders the city of Springfield, Massachusetts - Essex, England (1682/84)
1597-1216 Pieter de Neyn* Dutch landscape painter - Leiden (1639/41)
1597-1223 Martin Opitz* German poet/regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime - Bolesławiec, Silesia (1639/41)
Updated 13.3.2022
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