← Fame through time1100-1199
The 12th century
Whose working lives fell in the 12th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 12th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Bernard of Clairvaux19 decades - 2
Peter Abelard20 decades - 3
Héloïse16 decades - 4
Peter the Venerable19 decades - 5Abraham ben David of Posquièresnot measured-
- 6William of Champeaux15 decades
- 7David of Dinant0 decades
- 8
Adam of Balsham0 decades - 9Alberich of Reims3 decades
- 10Walter of St Victor0 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.