← Fame through time1700-1799
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 coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Madame du Barry22 decades - 2
Jean-Philippe Rameau11 decades - 3
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle20 decades - 4
François Couperin14 decades - 5
Luigi Cherubini2 decades - 6
François-André Danican Philidor0 decades - 7
Chevalier de Saint-Georgesnot measured- - 8
Julie d'Aubigny17 decades - 9
André Grétry0 decades - 10
François Joseph Gossec1 decades - 11
Ignaz Pleyelnot measured- - 12
Marie-Louise O'Murphy0 decades - 13
Jean-Marie Leclair4 decades - 14
Étienne Méhul0 decades - 15
Louis-Claude Daquin0 decades - 16
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault0 decades - 17
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier0 decades - 18
Élisabeth Thiblenot measured- - 19
Louis Marchand18 decades - 20
Jean-Joseph de Mondonvillenot measured- - 21
Jean-François Le Sueur0 decades - 22
François Devienne0 decades - 23
Jean-Féry Rebel0 decades - 24
Michel Corrette6 decades - 25Jean-Joseph Mouret0 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.