* 1550 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford ( d. 1604 )

* 1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician, astronomer, and humanist ( d. 1604 )

* 1604 – Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish diplomat

* 1604 – Tokugawa Iemitsu, Japanese 3rd shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty ( d. 1651 )

* 1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d ' Aubignac, French writer ( d. 1676 )

* 1661 – Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet, English soldier and politician ( b. 1604 )

* 1539 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian ( d. 1604 )

* 1546 – Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese Daimyo ( d. 1604 )

Category: Anglo-Spanish War ( 1585 – 1604 )

* 1604 – John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury ( b. 1530 )

Category: Anglo-Spanish War ( 1585 – 1604 )

* Dorothy Catherine of Brandenburg-Ansbach ( 1538 – 1604 ) married in 1556 Henry V of Plauen, Burgrave of Meissen.

Conflicts included an attempt to conquer England – a cautious supporter of the Dutch – in the unsuccessful Spanish Armada, an early battle in the Anglo-Spanish War ( 1585 – 1604 ), and war with France ( 1590 – 1598 ).

Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence ( 1582 – 1583 ), the official legislative body of the Italian language led to publication of Agnolo Monosini's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612.

* 1686 – Jean Mairet, French dramatist ( b. 1604 )

* 1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

* James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Abercorn ( c. 1604 – c. 1670 ), created Lord Hamilton, Baron of Strabane in the Peerage of Ireland in his father's lifetime.

The French Baroque school is exemplified by composers such as Ennemond Gaultier ( 1575 – 1651 ), Denis Gaultier ( 1597 / 1603 – 1672 ), François Dufaut ( before 1604 – before 1672 ) and many others.

* 1604 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian ( b. 1539 )

* Maria Cunitz ( 1604 – 64 ), astronomer, daughter of Schweidnitz Dr. Heinrich Kunitz

In Königsberg he became friends with and collaborated with Heinrich Albert ( 1604 – 1651 ), Robert Roberthin ( 1600 – 1648 ) and Sibylla Schwarz ( 1621 – 1638 ), and with them formed the Königsberger Dichtergruppe ( loosely translated as the " Königsberg Poets ' Association ").

* 1604 – Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.

* March 10 – Johann Glauber, German chemist ( b. 1604 )

* July 18 – Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, German general ( b. 1604 )

In 1558 the first German observatory was built in Kassel, followed in 1604 by the Ottoneum, the first permanent German theatre building.

The term " camera obscura " itself was first used by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1604.

Jakob Balde ( January 4, 1604 – August 9, 1668 ), a German Latinist, was born at Ensisheim in Alsace.

John Maurice of Nassau ( Dutch: Johan Maurits, German: Johann Moritz, 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679 ) was count and ( from 1674 ) prince of Nassau-Siegen.

Bernard of Saxe-Weimar () ( 16 August 1604 – 18 July 1639 ) was a German prince and general in the Thirty Years ' War.

* March 10-Johann Rudolf Glauber, German chemist ( born 1604 )

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg was a German landgraviate, and independent principality, within the Holy Roman Empire, that existed between 1485 and 1500, and between 1567 and 1604 / 1650.

* Miedema, Hessel, The Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters, from the first edition of the Schilder-boeck ( 1603 – 1604 ), preceded by the lineage, circumstances and place of birth, life and ..., from the second edition of the Schilder-boeck ( 1616 – 1618 ), Soest: Davaco, 1994-1997.

* Motet Maria Kron, die Engel schon-for five voices, to the German text, 1604

But in 1604 he entered the service of the Baron von Hohensax, the possessor of the Codex Manesse, the precious manuscript volume of old German Minnesänger of which Goldast published excerpts.

Among the more important are his Paraeneticorum veterum pars i. ( 1604 ), which contained the old German tales of Kunig Tyrol von Schotten, the Winsbeke and the Winsbekin ; Suevicarum rerum scriptores ( Frankfurt, 1605, new edition, 1727 ); Rerum Alamannicarum scriptores ( Frankfurt, 1606, new edition by Senckenburg, 1730 ); Constitutiones imperiales ( Frankfurt, 1607 ‑ 1613, 4 vols.

* April 8 – Claudio Merulo, Italian composer and organist ( d. 1604 )

Vanitas vanitatum is also the title of an oratorio written by Italian Baroque composer Giacomo Carissimi ( 1604 / 1605-1674 ).

Claudio Merulo ( also spelled Merlotti, Merulus, also Claudio da Correggio ; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604 ) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style.

** Thomas Storer, English poet ( d. 1604 )

* August 9 – Jakob Balde, Latinist poet and academic ( born 1604 )

Jasper Mayne ( 1604 – 6 December 1672 ) was an English clergyman, translator, and a minor poet and dramatist.

Thomas Storer ( c. 1571 – 1604 ) was an English poet.

The story of Philotas was dramatized in 1604 by the English poet and playwright Samuel Daniel.

Joshua Sylvester, another English poet around the court of King James, also translated Essay of the Second Week ( 1598 ) and The Divine Weeks of the World's Birth ( 1604 ).