215,950 profiles ranked

← Fame through time1900-1999

The 20th century

Whose names filled the books of the 20th 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 20th century, whenever they lived.

  1. 1Giotto1267-1337 · 14th century · Italy · Artists5.4
  2. 2Dante Alighieri1265-1321 · 14th century · Writers5.0
  3. 3Caravaggio1571-1610 · 17th century · Italy · Artists3.8
  4. 4Leonardo da Vinci1452-1519 · 15th century · Italy · Artists3.8
  5. 5Antonio da Correggio1489-1534 · 16th century · Italy · Artists3.7
  6. 6Benedetto Croce1866-1952 · 20th century · Italy · Academics3.3
  7. 7Donato Bramante1444-1514 · 15th century · Italy · Architects2.9
  8. 8Donatello1386-1466 · 15th century · Artists2.8
  9. 9Giuseppe Mazzini1805-1872 · 19th century · Italy · Activists2.2
  10. 10Alessandro Manzoni1785-1873 · 19th century · Italy · Writers2.2
  11. 11Ugo Foscolo1778-1827 · 19th century · Writers2.1
  12. 12Pietro Perugino1448-1523 · 15th century · Italy · Artists2.0
  13. 13Tintoretto1519-1594 · 16th century · Italy · Artists1.9
  14. 14Francis of Assisi1182-1226 · 13th century · Italy · Writers1.8
  15. 15Giacomo Leopardi1798-1837 · 19th century · Italy · Writers1.8
  16. 16Benito Mussolini1883-1945 · 20th century · Italy · Politicians1.8
  17. 17Torquato Tasso1544-1595 · 16th century · Italy · Writers1.7
  18. 18Masaccio1401-1428 · 15th century · Italy · Artists1.7
  19. 19Giordano Bruno1548-1600 · 16th century · Italy · Academics1.6
  20. 20Lorenzo de' Medici1449-1492 · 15th century · Politicians1.6
  21. 21Galileo Galilei1564-1642 · 16th century · Italy · Scientists1.6
  22. 22Charles Borromeo1538-1584 · 16th century · Italy · Religious Figures1.6
  23. 23Giosuè Carducci1835-1907 · 19th century · Italy · Writers1.5
  24. 24Marco Polo1254-1324 · 13th century · Italy · Historical Figures1.4
  25. 25Giuseppe Verdi1813-1901 · 19th century · Italy · Musicians1.4
Show 75 more

Lived then

The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 20th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.

  1. 1J. R. R. Tolkien1892-1973 · United Kingdom · Writers7 decades
  2. 2Ernest Hemingway1899-1961 · United States · Writers10 decades
  3. 3Stephen Kingborn 1947 · United States · Writers8 decades
  4. 4Anne Frank1929-1945 · Germany · Writers7 decades
  5. 5Franz Kafka1883-1924 · Czechia · Writers11 decades
  6. 6Agatha Christie1890-1976 · United Kingdom · Writers10 decades
  7. 7Helen Keller1880-1968 · United States · Writers14 decades
  8. 8George Orwell1903-1950 · United Kingdom · Writers9 decades
  9. 9Amelia Earhart1897-1939 · United States · Writers10 decades
  10. 10Michelle Obamaborn 1964 · United States · Writers2 decades
  11. 11George R. R. Martinborn 1948 · United States · Writers1 decades
  12. 12Virginia Woolf1882-1941 · United Kingdom · Writers10 decades
  13. 13C. S. Lewis1898-1963 · United Kingdom · Writers10 decades
  14. 14Roald Dahl1916-1990 · Norway · Writers6 decades
  15. 15Gabriel García Márquez1927-2014 · Colombia · Writers7 decades
  16. 16Isaac Asimov1920-1992 · United States · Writers7 decades
  17. 17Salman Rushdieborn 1947 · United Kingdom · Writers4 decades
  18. 18Ayn Rand1905-1982 · United States · Writers3 decades
  19. 19Mario Vargas Llosa1936-2025 · Spain · Writers7 decades
  20. 20Thomas Mann1875-1955 · United States · Writers12 decades
  21. 21Sylvia Plath1932-1963 · United States · Writers6 decades
  22. 22Stan Lee1922-2018 · United States · Writers3 decades
  23. 23H. P. Lovecraft1890-1937 · United States · Writers6 decades
  24. 24Rudyard Kipling1865-1936 · United Kingdom · Writers13 decades
  25. 25Ian Fleming1908-1964 · United Kingdom · Writers7 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.