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. 1Giambattista VicoGiambattista Vico1668–1744 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics22 decades
  2. 2Cesare BeccariaCesare Beccaria1738–1794 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics22 decades
  3. 3Maria Gaetana AgnesiMaria Gaetana Agnesi1718–1799 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics22 decades
  4. 4Giuseppe PiazziGiuseppe Piazzi1746–1826 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics22 decades
  5. 5Francesco AlgarottiFrancesco Algarotti1712–1764 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics22 decades
  6. 6Jacopo RiccatiJacopo Riccati1676–1754 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academics14 decades
  7. 7Giovanni Gaetano BottariGiovanni Gaetano Bottari1689–1775 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academicsnot measured—
  8. 8Giovanni Battista ViscontiGiovanni Battista Visconti1722–1784 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academicsnot measured—
  9. 9Girolamo Francesco CristianiGirolamo Francesco Cristiani1731–1811 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academicsnot measured—
  10. 10Ermenegildo PiniErmenegildo Pini1739–1825 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Academicsnot 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.