← Fame through time1740-1749
The 1740s
Whose working lives fell in the 1740s. 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 1740s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Benjamin Franklin22 decades - 2
Jean-Jacques Rousseau22 decades - 3
Leonhard Euler22 decades - 4
Carl Linnaeus7 decades - 5
Frederick the Great22 decades - 6
David Hume22 decades - 7
Mikhail Lomonosov19 decades - 8
Louis XV of France22 decades - 9
Elizabeth of Russia20 decades - 10
Samuel Johnson22 decades - 11
Denis Diderot21 decades - 12
Qianlong Emperor3 decades - 13
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor6 decades - 14
Ferdinand VI of Spain4 decades - 15
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach15 decades - 16
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chathamnot measured- - 17
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffonnot measured- - 18
Carlo Goldoni22 decades - 19
Christoph Willibald Gluck9 decades - 20
Frederick, Prince of Wales0 decades - 21
Henry Fielding22 decades - 22
Pope Clement XIV20 decades - 23
Count of St. Germain7 decades - 24
Laurence Sterne22 decades - 25
Farinelli22 decades - 26
Joseph I of Portugal0 decades - 27
George Whitefield22 decades - 28
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Butenot measured- - 29
George Grenville22 decades - 30
William IV, Prince of Orangenot measured- - 31
Karim Khan zandnot measured- - 32
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach13 decades - 33
Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans0 decades - 34
Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain17 decades - 35
Laura Bassi22 decades - 36
Junípero Serra18 decades - 37
Charles Wesley22 decades - 38
Sayat-Nova0 decades - 39
Abbas III0 decades - 40
Roger Joseph Boscovich7 decades - 41
Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumontnot measured- - 42
Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orangenot measured- - 43
Georg Wilhelm Steller3 decades - 44
Julien Offray de La Mettrie2 decades - 45
Shah Jahan III0 decades - 46
Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden22 decades - 47
Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine0 decades - 48
Anna Leopoldovna0 decades - 49
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm0 decades - 50
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac1 decades - 51
Kelzang Gyatso0 decades - 52
Joseph Vernet22 decades - 53
Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuthnot measured- - 54
Thomas Reid22 decades - 55Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten11 decades
- 56
John Cleland15 decades - 57
Alivardi Khan1 decades - 58
Princess Amelia of Great Britainnot measured- - 59
Pompeo Batoni20 decades - 60
Adil Shah22 decades - 61
Antiochus Kantemir17 decades - 62
Thomas Arne0 decades - 63
Francesco Guardi21 decades - 64
Baldassare Galuppi15 decades - 65
Jacques de Vaucanson0 decades - 66
Charles-Michel de l'Épéenot measured- - 67
Princess Caroline of Great Britainnot measured- - 68
Albrecht von Haller22 decades - 69
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenarguesnot measured- - 70Mohammed ben Abdallah0 decades
- 71
Alaungpaya6 decades - 72
Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spainnot measured- - 73
Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttelnot measured- - 74
Jacques-Germain Soufflot1 decades - 75
Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille0 decades - 76
Moshe Chaim Luzzattonot measured- - 77
Alexis Clairaut0 decades - 78
Guillaume Thomas François Raynal3 decades - 79
Tokugawa Ieshige0 decades - 80
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfieldnot measured- - 81
Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausennot measured- - 82
Francesco Algarotti22 decades - 83
Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg0 decades - 84
William Cullen22 decades - 85
Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg0 decades - 86
Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorpnot measured- - 87
Georg Wilhelm Richmann0 decades - 88
Stepan Krasheninnikov8 decades - 89
Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlboroughnot measured- - 90
Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswicknot measured- - 91
Ablai Khan0 decades - 92
Allan Ramsay22 decades - 93
William Boyce15 decades - 94
Hannah Glasse0 decades - 95
Safdar Jang7 decades - 96
Ekkathatnot measured- - 97
Giovanni Battista Martini4 decades - 98
Mary Ball Washington1 decades - 99
Jean-Baptiste Pigalle3 decades - 100
Leopold Joseph von Daun0 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.