Live Larsdatter

Live Larsdattir (6 August 1575 - 9 July 1698) was a Danish longevity claiment who claimed to be the oldest person in the world when she died.

Live Larsdattir was born in Kastrup, Copenhagen, Denmark on 6 August 1575. Apparently, she was a pharmacist and lived and worked in the house of Sophie Brahe, the sister of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, with whom she would do chemical work.

Later in her life, she received support from the king and in 1691, Dutchman Pieter van der Hulst made a portret of her by the king's expanse (as of today, the portret is currently located at Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, Denmark). Live Larsdattir passed away on 9 July 1698 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

On the portret, a 'baptism record' from 1575 supports her claim and if her age really is believed to be true, she would have died at the age of 122 years, 337 days, making her the oldest woman and person in the world ever (she beacme 173 days older than the current officialy validated oldest person ever, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment).

Refences

 * On Tycho's Island: Tycho Brahe, Science, and Culture in the Sixteenth Century, 2003