← 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
Edward Jenner22 decades - 2
Samuel Hahnemann20 decades - 3
Franz Mesmer9 decades - 4
Luigi Galvani22 decades - 5
Benjamin Rush22 decades - 6
Erasmus Darwin22 decades - 7
Alessandro Cagliostro22 decades - 8
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin0 decades - 9
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach11 decades - 10
Charles-Henri Sanson1 decades - 11
James Parkinson17 decades - 12
Philippe Pinel11 decades - 13
John Hunter22 decades - 14
Julien Offray de La Mettrie2 decades - 15
Dorothea Christiane Erxleben1 decades - 16
James Lind9 decades - 17
Josiah Bartlett19 decades
- 18
Claude Louis Berthollet1 decades - 19
Franz Joseph Gall2 decades - 20
William Cullen22 decades - 21
Joseph Warren22 decades - 22
Gerard van Swieten9 decades - 23
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers0 decades - 24
Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland12 decades - 25
John Arbuthnot19 decades - 26
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli5 decades - 27
Giovanni Battista Morgagni0 decades - 28
Antoine Louis17 decades - 29
Pierre Fauchard2 decades - 30Francis Buchanan-Hamilton0 decades
- 31
Marcus Elieser Blochnot measured- - 32
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart0 decades - 33
Antonio Scarpa22 decades - 34
Percivall Pott0 decades - 35
Thomas Bowdler4 decades - 36
Josephus Nicolaus Laurentinot measured- - 37
Johann Christian Reil10 decades - 38
Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring2 decades - 39
Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton0 decades - 40
Hanaoka Seishū0 decades - 41
Antonio Maria Valsalva0 decades - 42
Johann Hermann4 decades - 43
Petrus Camper0 decades - 44
Samuel-Auguste Tissot0 decades - 45
Archibald Menzies5 decades - 46
Félix Vicq-d'Azyr1 decades - 47
John Jeffries17 decades - 48
William Smellie12 decades - 49
Johann Peter Frank21 decades - 50
Francisco Javier Balmis6 decades - 51
Leopold Auenbrugger0 decades - 52
John Abernethy11 decades - 53
William Hewson2 decades - 54
Charles Blagden8 decades - 55
Richard Mead20 decades - 56
Domenico Cirillo22 decades - 57
Bernhard Siegfried Albinusnot measured- - 58
Johann Julius Walbaum0 decades - 59
Everard Home14 decades - 60
William Heberden3 decades - 61
Pierre-Joseph Desault0 decades - 62
William Hunternot measured- - 63
John Fothergill20 decades - 64
Philip Mazzei4 decades - 65
Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storrnot measured- - 66
Pierre-François Percy0 decades - 67
Hugh Mercernot measured- - 68Johann Beringer0 decades
- 69
François Gigot de la Peyronienot measured- - 70
Théodore Tronchin18 decades - 71
Andrew Bellnot measured- - 72
Justus Christian Loder6 decades - 73
Johann Christian Senckenbergnot measured- - 74
Jean-Baptiste Dominique Ruscanot measured- - 75
George Cheyne14 decades - 76
Giorgio Baglivi0 decades - 77
Domenico Cotugnonot measured- - 78
Armand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis of Puységurnot measured- - 79
Martinus van Marum0 decades - 80
António Nunes Ribeiro Sanchesnot measured- - 81
Jean Louis Petit15 decades - 82
Thomas Beddoesnot measured-
- 83
Anton de Haen2 decades - 84
Alexander Crichtonnot measured- - 85
John Aikin13 decades - 86
Johann Konrad Ammannnot measured- - 87
Samuel Prescottnot measured- - 88
James McClurgnot measured- - 89
Matthew Baillie13 decades - 90
Thomas Percivalnot measured- - 91
Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn0 decades - 92
Ye Tianshinot measured- - 93
Charles Whitenot measured- - 94
Paul Joseph Barthez0 decades - 95
Alexander Monronot measured- - 96
Georg Joseph Beer0 decades - 97
François Chopartnot measured- - 98
Manuel Benito de Castronot measured- - 99
Giovanni Domenico Santorini0 decades - 100
Edward Bancroftnot measured-
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.