215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1850-1859

The 1850s

Whose names filled the books of the 1850s - anyone at all, however long dead - counted as mentions per million words printed, so a period that simply published more does not inflate anyone.

Talked about then

Whose names appeared most in Italian books during the 1850s, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Giotto1267-1337 · 14th century · Italy · Artists4.1
  2. 2Antonio da Correggio1489-1534 · 16th century · Italy · Artists3.7
  3. 3Torquato Tasso1544-1595 · 16th century · Italy · Writers3.2
  4. 4Pietro Perugino1448-1523 · 15th century · Italy · Artists2.9
  5. 5Lorenzo de' Medici1449-1492 · 15th century · Politicians2.9
  6. 6Charles Borromeo1538-1584 · 16th century · Italy · Religious Figures2.8
  7. 7Dante Alighieri1265-1321 · 14th century · Writers2.6
  8. 8Donato Bramante1444-1514 · 15th century · Italy · Architects2.5
  9. 9Cesare Balbo1789-1853 · 19th century · Politicians2.2
  10. 10Caravaggio1571-1610 · 17th century · Italy · Artists2.1
  11. 11Tintoretto1519-1594 · 16th century · Italy · Artists2.0
  12. 12Ugo Foscolo1778-1827 · 19th century · Writers1.9
  13. 13Philip Neri1515-1595 · 16th century · Religious Figures1.8
  14. 14Paul the Deacon720-799 · 8th century · Writers1.8
  15. 15Giuseppe Mazzini1805-1872 · 19th century · Italy · Activists1.8
  16. 16Vincenzo Gioberti1801-1852 · 19th century · Italy · Academics1.8
  17. 17Andrea Doria1466-1560 · 16th century · Italy · Politicians1.7
  18. 18Cosimo de' Medici1389-1464 · 15th century · Politicians1.6
  19. 19Donatello1386-1466 · 15th century · Artists1.5
  20. 20Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519 · 15th century · Italy · Artists1.4
  21. 21Francesco Guicciardini1483-1540 · 16th century · Writers1.4
  22. 22Marco Polo1254-1324 · 13th century · Italy · Historical Figures1.4
  23. 23Cesare Borgia1475-1507 · 16th century · Italy · Historical Figures1.4
  24. 24Silvio Pellico1789-1854 · 19th century · Writers1.3
  25. 25Apostolo Zeno1668-1750 · 18th century · Writers1.3
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 1850s, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Karl Marx1818-1883 · Germany · Academics17 decades
  2. 2Fyodor Dostoevsky1821-1881 · Russia · Writers17 decades
  3. 3Queen Victoria1819-1901 · United Kingdom · Historical Figuresnot measured-
  4. 4Otto von Bismarck1815-1898 · Germany · Politicians16 decades
  5. 5Ulysses S. Grant1822-1885 · United States · Politicians16 decades
  6. 6Florence Nightingale1820-1910 · Writers17 decades
  7. 7Louis Pasteur1822-1895 · France · Scientists14 decades
  8. 8Ada Lovelace1815-1852 · Academics3 decades
  9. 9Rutherford B. Hayes1822-1893 · United States · Politicians16 decades
  10. 10Charlotte Brontë1816-1855 · United Kingdom · Writers17 decades
  11. 11Friedrich Engels1820-1895 · United Kingdom · Academics17 decades
  12. 12Henry David Thoreau1817-1862 · United States · Writers13 decades
  13. 13Walt Whitman1819-1892 · United States · Writers17 decades
  14. 14Alexander II of Russia1818-1881 · Russia · Historical Figures17 decades
  15. 15Harriet Tubman1821-1913 · United States · Writers9 decades
  16. 16Charles Baudelaire1821-1867 · France · Writers17 decades
  17. 17George Eliot1819-1880 · United Kingdom · Writers19 decades
  18. 18Herman Melville1819-1891 · United States · Writers18 decades
  19. 19Frederick Douglass1818-1895 · United States · Writers18 decades
  20. 20Gregor Mendel1822-1884 · Scientists12 decades
  21. 21Gustave Flaubert1821-1880 · France · Writers17 decades
  22. 22John Ruskin1819-1900 · United Kingdom · Writers18 decades
  23. 23Susan B. Anthony1820-1906 · United States · Activists16 decades
  24. 24Rani of Jhansi1828-1858 · India · Activists8 decades
  25. 25William Tecumseh Sherman1820-1891 · United States · Writers14 decades
Show 75 more

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.