215,950 profiles ranked

← 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. 1Carl Linnaeus1707-1778 · Sweden · Scientists7 decades
  2. 2Emanuel Swedenborg1688-1772 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  3. 3Anders Celsius1701-1744 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  4. 4Carl Wilhelm Scheele1742-1786 · Sweden · Scientists8 decades
  5. 5Carl Peter Thunberg1743-1828 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  6. 6Johan Gadolin1760-1852 · Sweden · Scientistsnot measured-
  7. 7Stephen Hales1677-1761 · Sweden · Scientists22 decades
  8. 8Carl Linnaeus the Younger1741-1783 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  9. 9Daniel Solander1733-1782 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  10. 10Torbern Bergman1735-1784 · Sweden · Scientists1 decades
  11. 11Philip Johan von Strahlenberg1676-1747 · Sweden · Scientistsnot measured-
  12. 12Peter Forsskål1732-1763 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  13. 13Axel Fredrik Cronstedt1722-1765 · Sweden · Scientistsnot measured-
  14. 14Anders Johan Lexell1740-1784 · Sweden · Scientistsnot measured-
  15. 15Pehr Kalm1716-1779 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  16. 16Georg Brandt1694-1768 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  17. 17Johann Gottlieb Georgi1729-1802 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  18. 18Erik Acharius1757-1819 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  19. 19Peter Artedi1705-1735 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  20. 20Johan Gottlieb Gahn1745-1818 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  21. 21Anders Dahl1751-1789 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  22. 22Anders Sparrman1748-1820 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  23. 23Olof Swartz1760-1817 · Sweden · Scientists1 decades
  24. 24Adam Afzelius1750-1837 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
  25. 25Olof Celsius1670-1756 · Sweden · Scientists0 decades
Show 43 more

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.