Claim profile
1100–1199

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 Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan🇩🇪 Germany🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇳🇴 Norway🇮🇹 Italy🇪🇸 Spain🇸🇪 Sweden🇨🇳 China🇹🇷 Turkey
FieldAllHistorical FiguresWritersPoliticiansReligious FiguresAcademicsModelsActorsArtistsMusiciansDoctors
  1. 1Adi ibn MusafirAdi ibn Musafir1073–1162 · Actors0 decades
  2. 2Ibn QudamahIbn Qudamah1147–1223 · Actors0 decades
  3. 3William of St-ThierryWilliam of St-Thierry1075–1148 · Actors0 decades
  4. 4Richard of Saint VictorRichard of Saint Victor1110–1173 · Actors0 decades
  5. 5Amalric of BenaAmalric of Bena1150–1206 · 🇫🇷 France · Actors0 decades
  6. 6Honorius AugustodunensisHonorius Augustodunensis1080–1154 · 🇩🇪 Germany · Actors1 decades
  7. 7Gilbert de La PorréeGilbert de La Porrée1070–1154 · 🇫🇷 France · Actors0 decades
  8. 8Abd as-Salam ibn Mashish al-AlamiAbd as-Salam ibn Mashish al-Alami1163–1227 · Actorsnot measured—
  9. 9Ahmad GhazaliAhmad Ghazali1100–1126 · Actors0 decades
  10. 10Peter of BruysPeter of Bruys1095–1131 · 🇫🇷 France · Actors21 decades
  11. 11Eleazar of WormsEleazar of Worms1160–1238 · 🇩🇪 Germany · Actorsnot measured—
  12. 12RIRaghib Isfahani1100–1108 · Actors0 decades
  13. 13TanchelmTanchelm1100–1115 · Actors0 decades
  14. 14PCPeter Cantor1101–1197 · Actors0 decades
  15. 15WOWilliam of Auxerre1145–1231 · 🇫🇷 France · Actors19 decades
  16. 16AIAbu-l-Qāsim ibn Fīrruh Shāṭibī1144–1194 · Actorsnot measured—
  17. 17MIMuhammad ibn Tayfour Sajawandidied 1165 · Actorsnot measured—
  18. 18TBTobiah ben Eliezer1080–1150 · Actors15 decades
  19. 19NMNicholas Mesarites1163–1216 · Actors0 decades
  20. 20RPRobert Pullen1080–1146 · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · Actors0 decades
  21. 21Peter of PoitiersPeter of Poitiers1130–1205 · Actors3 decades
  22. 22JAJamal al-Din al-Ghaznawidied 1196 · Actorsnot measured—
  23. 23GOGeoffrey of Auxerre1115–1188 · Actors0 decades
  24. 24AOAndrew of Saint Victor1110–1175 · Actors0 decades
  25. 25Peter of CorbeilPeter of Corbeil1101–1222 · Actors20 decades
  26. 26Gottfried von SpitzenbergGottfried von Spitzenberg1132–1190 · 🇩🇪 Germany · Actors0 decades
  27. 27Achard of Saint-VictorAchard of Saint-Victor1100–1171 · Actors0 decades
  28. 28WOWalter of Mortagne1100–1174 · 🇫🇷 France · Actors13 decades

How this is measured

  • Placing people in time. Each person belongs to the century in which they were most active — around age 35, and never after their death.
  • Who ranks highest. Within a century, people are ranked where two independent signals agree: how many of the world’s Wikipedia language editions cover them, and how many people actually read about them. Article counts alone can be lifted by a person’s own circle; readers cannot.
  • Fame in print. The curves count how often a name appears in Google Books from 1800 to 2019, as a share of all the words printed each year, in the person’s own language wherever that corpus exists. Those decades are over, so each measurement is made once and kept.
  • What is left out. A lifetime is measured only from 1820, when there is enough print to judge; the five years after a death are skipped as obituaries; and a name shared with someone equally notable is credited to neither.