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. 1Antonio VivaldiAntonio Vivaldi1678–1741 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians14 decades
  2. 2Antonio SalieriAntonio Salieri1750–1825 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians15 decades
  3. 3Domenico ScarlattiDomenico Scarlatti1685–1757 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians17 decades
  4. 4Giovanni Battista PergolesiGiovanni Battista Pergolesi1710–1736 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians8 decades
  5. 5FarinelliFarinelli1705–1782 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians22 decades
  6. 6Tomaso AlbinoniTomaso Albinoni1671–1751 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians8 decades
  7. 7Luigi BoccheriniLuigi Boccherini1743–1805 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians13 decades
  8. 8Giovanni PaisielloGiovanni Paisiello1740–1816 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians22 decades
  9. 9Domenico CimarosaDomenico Cimarosa1749–1801 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians22 decades
  10. 10Muzio ClementiMuzio Clementi1752–1832 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians17 decades
  11. 11Giovanni Battista ViottiGiovanni Battista Viotti1755–1824 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians3 decades
  12. 12Nicola PorporaNicola Porpora1686–1768 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians12 decades
  13. 13Benedetto MarcelloBenedetto Marcello1686–1739 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians22 decades
  14. 14Giovanni BononciniGiovanni Bononcini1670–1747 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians9 decades
  15. 15Niccolò JommelliNiccolò Jommelli1714–1774 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians9 decades
  16. 16Domenico AlbertiDomenico Alberti1710–1746 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians7 decades
  17. 17ALAndrea Luchesi1741–1801 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians1 decades
  18. 18GSGiuseppe Sammartini1695–1750 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians1 decades
  19. 19GBGiovanni Benedetto Platti1697–1763 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians0 decades
  20. 20FBFrancesco Barsanti1690–1772 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Musicians0 decades

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.