← 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 Chinese books during the 19th century, whenever they lived.
- 1
Zhu Xi870 - 2
Li Hongzhang149 - 3
Zhang Zhidong86 - 4
Zuo Zongtang43 - 5
Ban Gu40 - 6
Ge Hong40 - 7Chen Shou14
- 8
Mao Zedong12 - 9
Lu Xun11
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 19th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
George Santayana9 decades - 2
Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo14 decades - 3
Jaime Balmes18 decades - 4
Nicolás Salmerón16 decades - 5
Marcelino Sanz de Sautuolanot measured- - 6
Joaquín Costanot measured- - 7
Manuel Bartolomé Cossíonot measured- - 8
Alberto Listanot measured- - 9
Álvaro Flórez Estradanot measured- - 10
Ignacio Bolívarnot measured- - 11
Eduardo Toda y Güellnot measured- - 12
Ricardo Velázquez Bosconot measured- - 13
Victoriano Guisasola y Menéndeznot measured- - 14
Buenaventura Carlos Aribaunot measured- - 15
Laureano Figuerolanot measured- - 16
Julián Sanz del Ríonot measured- - 17
Mariano Pardo de Figueroanot measured- - 18
Fidel Fita y Coloménot measured- - 19
Miguel Villanueva y Gómeznot measured- - 20
Zoel García de Galdeanonot measured- - 21
Juan Güellnot measured- - 22
Eduardo Torroja Caballenot measured- - 23
Gerónimo Boscananot measured- - 24
Telesforo Aranzadinot measured- - 25
Luis Octavio de Toledo y Zuluetanot 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.