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. 1Pope Leo XIIPope Leo XII1760–1829 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures20 decades
  2. 2Pope Benedict XIVPope Benedict XIV1675–1758 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  3. 3Pope Pius VIPope Pius VI1717–1799 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  4. 4Pope Pius VIIPope Pius VII1742–1823 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures22 decades
  5. 5Pope Clement XIVPope Clement XIV1705–1774 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures20 decades
  6. 6Pope Clement XIIIPope Clement XIII1693–1769 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures21 decades
  7. 7Pope Pius VIIIPope Pius VIII1761–1830 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures1 decades
  8. 8Alphonsus LiguoriAlphonsus Liguori1696–1787 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures18 decades
  9. 9Henry Benedict StuartHenry Benedict Stuart1725–1807 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figures0 decades
  10. 10Antonio Francesco GoriAntonio Francesco Gori1691–1757 · 🇮🇹 Italy · Religious Figuresnot 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.