Claim profile
1700–1799

The 18th century

Whose working lives fell in the 18th 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 18th century, ranked where Wikipedia coverage and readership agree.

CountryAll🇫🇷 France🇩🇪 Germany🇺🇸 United States🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇮🇹 Italy🇪🇸 Spain🇸🇪 Sweden🇯🇵 Japan🇹🇷 Turkey🇦🇹 Austria
FieldAllPoliticiansHistorical FiguresWritersScientistsMusiciansArtistsAcademicsArchitectsDoctorsReligious Figures
  1. 1Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart1756–1791 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians21 decades
  2. 2Joseph HaydnJoseph Haydn1732–1809 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians22 decades
  3. 3Maria Anna MozartMaria Anna Mozart1751–1829 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians3 decades
  4. 4Michael HaydnMichael Haydn1737–1806 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians22 decades
  5. 5Maria Theresia ParadisMaria Theresia Paradis1759–1824 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians3 decades
  6. 6Florian Leopold GassmannFlorian Leopold Gassmann1729–1774 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musicians0 decades
  7. 7Johannes Matthias SpergerJohannes Matthias Sperger1750–1812 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musiciansnot measured—
  8. 8JBJoseph Balthasar Hochreither1669–1731 · 🇦🇹 Austria · Musiciansnot measured—

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.