215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1800-1899

The 19th century

Whose names filled the books of the 19th century - anyone at all, however long dead - counted as mentions per million words printed, so a period that simply published more does not inflate anyone.

Talked about then

Whose names appeared most in Italian books during the 19th century, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Giotto1267-1337 · 14th century · Italy · Artists5.5
  2. 2Antonio da Correggio1489-1534 · 16th century · Italy · Artists5.0
  3. 3Lorenzo de' Medici1449-1492 · 15th century · Politicians3.0
  4. 4Dante Alighieri1265-1321 · 14th century · Writers2.9
  5. 5Pietro Perugino1448-1523 · 15th century · Italy · Artists2.9
  6. 6Donato Bramante1444-1514 · 15th century · Italy · Architects2.6
  7. 7Torquato Tasso1544-1595 · 16th century · Italy · Writers2.6
  8. 8Caravaggio1571-1610 · 17th century · Italy · Artists2.1
  9. 9Apostolo Zeno1668-1750 · 18th century · Writers2.1
  10. 10Cimabue1240-1302 · 13th century · Artists2.1
  11. 11Tintoretto1519-1594 · 16th century · Italy · Artists1.9
  12. 12Charles Borromeo1538-1584 · 16th century · Italy · Religious Figures1.8
  13. 13Donatello1386-1466 · 15th century · Artists1.8
  14. 14Paul the Deacon720-799 · 8th century · Writers1.8
  15. 15Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519 · 15th century · Italy · Artists1.7
  16. 16Philip Neri1515-1595 · 16th century · Religious Figures1.7
  17. 17Marco Polo1254-1324 · 13th century · Italy · Historical Figures1.7
  18. 18Cosimo de' Medici1389-1464 · 15th century · Politicians1.7
  19. 19Galileo Galilei1564-1642 · 16th century · Italy · Scientists1.7
  20. 20Andrea Doria1466-1560 · 16th century · Italy · Politicians1.6
  21. 21Giulio Romano1499-1546 · 16th century · Italy · Artists1.6
  22. 22Guercino1591-1666 · 17th century · Italy · Artists1.5
  23. 23Domenichino1581-1641 · 17th century · Artists1.5
  24. 24Ugo Foscolo1778-1827 · 19th century · Writers1.4
  25. 25Petrarch1304-1374 · 14th century · Italy · Academics1.4
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1Nikola Tesla1856-1943 · Hungary · Scientists13 decades
  2. 2Charles Darwin1809-1882 · United Kingdom · Scientists21 decades
  3. 3Thomas Edison1847-1931 · United States · Scientists13 decades
  4. 4Alexander Graham Bell1847-1922 · United States · Scientists15 decades
  5. 5Louis Pasteur1822-1895 · France · Scientists14 decades
  6. 6Alfred Nobel1833-1896 · Sweden · Scientists13 decades
  7. 7Dmitri Mendeleev1834-1907 · Russia · Scientists11 decades
  8. 8Michael Faraday1791-1867 · United Kingdom · Scientists20 decades
  9. 9Max Planck1858-1947 · Germany · Scientists14 decades
  10. 10James Clerk Maxwell1831-1879 · United Kingdom · Scientists14 decades
  11. 11Gregor Mendel1822-1884 · Scientists12 decades
  12. 12Pierre Curie1859-1906 · France · Scientists13 decades
  13. 13Gustave Eiffel1832-1923 · France · Scientists10 decades
  14. 14Ivan Pavlov1849-1936 · Russia · Scientists16 decades
  15. 15Wilhelm Röntgen1845-1923 · Germany · Scientists11 decades
  16. 16Konstantin Tsiolkovsky1857-1935 · Russia · Scientists5 decades
  17. 17George Washington Carver1864-1943 · United States · Scientists9 decades
  18. 18J. J. Thomson1856-1940 · United Kingdom · Scientists0 decades
  19. 19Rudolf Diesel1858-1913 · France · Scientists10 decades
  20. 20John Dalton1766-1844 · United Kingdom · Scientists22 decades
  21. 21Santiago Ramón y Cajal1852-1934 · Spain · Scientists13 decades
  22. 22Samuel Morse1791-1872 · United States · Scientists0 decades
  23. 23Ludwig Boltzmann1844-1906 · Austria · Scientists15 decades
  24. 24Louis Braille1809-1852 · France · Scientists14 decades
  25. 25John Muir1838-1914 · United States · Scientists19 decades
Show 75 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.