James Cattell (1860-1944) | |
American science magazine editor and America's first psychologist James Cattell, maker of the Cattell 1000, an 1894 listing of the top thousand preeminent people of history, based on multiple dictionary and encyclopedia space allocation. [1] |
See main: Genius epochsThe following, derived from the eminence rankings, shows the distribution of eminent people during the Greco-Roman period: [1]
“The method I followed to discover the 1,000 men who are preeminent was this: I took six biographical dictionaries or encyclopedias (Lippincott’s Biographical Dictionary, The Encyclopedia Britannica, Rose’s Biographical Dictionary, Le Dictionnaire de Biographie Generale, Beaugean’s Dictionnaire Biographique, and Brockhaus’ Conversations lexicon)—two English, two French, one German, and one American and found the two thousand men (approximately) in each who were allowed the longest articles. In this way some 6,000 men were found. I then selected the men who appeared in the lists of at least three of the dictionaries, and from these (some 1,600) selected the thousand who were allowed the greatest average space, the value of the separate dictionaries being reduced to a common standard. Thus was obtained not only the thousand men esteemed the most eminent, but also the order in which they stand.”
“The rectangles are proportional to the numbers of the most eminent men produced by different nations. The shaded parts represent the more eminent five hundred, and the heavily shaded parts the hundred most eminent of all.”
1-100 | 101-200 | 201-300 | 201-300 | 401-500 |
1. Napoleon Bonaparte 2. William Shakespeare 3. Muhammad [not real] 4. Voltaire 5. Francis Bacon 6. Aristotle 7. Johann Goethe 8. Julius Caesar 9. Martin Luther 10. Plato 11. Napoleon III 12. Edmund Burke 13. Homer 14. Isaac Newton 15. Cicero 16. John Milton 17. Alexander the Great 18. Pitt 19. George Washington 20. Augustus 21. Wellington 22. Raphael 23. Rene Descartes 24. Christopher Columbus 25. Confucius [not real] 26. Penn 27. Scott 28. Michelangelo 29. Socrates 30. Byron 31. Cromwell 32. Gautama [not real] 33. Immanuel Kant 34. Gottfried Leibniz 35. John Locke 36. Demosthenes 37. Mary Stuart 38. John Calvin 39. Moliere 40. Abraham Lincoln 41. Louis Philippe 42. Dante 43. Jean Rousseau 44. Nero 45. Benjamin Franklin 46. Galileo Galilei 47. Samuel Johnson 48. Robespierre 49. Frederick the Great 50. Marcus Aurelius 51. Hegel 52. Petrarch 53. Horace 54. Charles V. (Germany) 55. Mirabeau 56. Erasmus 57. Virgil 58. Hume 59. Guizot 60. Edward Gibbon 61. Blaise Pascal 62. Bossuet 63. Thomas Hobbes 64. Jonathan Swift 65. Thiers 66. Louis XIV 67. William Wordsworth 68. Louis XVI 69. Nelson 70. Henry VIII 71. Joseph Addison 72. Thucydides 73. Fox 74. Racine 75. Friedrich Schiller 76. Henry IV (France) 77. William Herschel 78. Tasso 79. Thomas Jefferson 80. Ptolemy 81. Augustine 82. Alexander Pope 83. Niccolo Machiavelli 84. Emanuel Swedenborg 85. Philip II 86. Leonardo da Vinci 87. George III 88. Julian 89. Pythagoras 90. Macaulay 91. Rubens 92. Burns 93. Mosart 94. Humboldt 95. Auguste Comte 96. Cousin 97. Georges Cuvier 98. Justinian 99. Euripides 100. Camoens | 101. Talleyrand 102. Fenelon 103. Thomas Carlyle 104. Pius IX 105. Pitt 106. More 107. Hannibal 108. Benedict Spinoza 109. Chateaubriand 110. Peter Abelard 111. Grant 112. Charles I (England) 113. Charles Darwin 114. Mazarin 115. Lord Bolingbroke 116. Elizabeth (England) 117. Ovid 118. Joan d’Arc 119. Livy 120. Corneille 121. Rabelais 122. Huss 123. a’ Becket 124. Jean d’ Alembert 125. Grotius 126. Peter I 127. Polo 128. Carl Linnaeus 129. Raleigh [John Strutt] 130. Palmerston 131. Lamartine 132. Jos. Bonaparte 133. Tennyson 134. Plutarch 135. Charlemagne 136. Aristophanes 137. Philipp Melanchthon 138. St. Ambrose 139. Richelieu 140. James I. 141. John Hunter 142. Victor Hugo 143. Disraeli 144. Dryden 145. Origen 146. Titian 147. Boccaccio 148. Alberoni 149. Lessing 150. Johann Fichte 151. Etienne Condillac 152. Dickens 153. Wallenstein 154. Friedrich Schelling 155. Durer 156. Charles VII 157. Kepler 158. Trajan 159. Knox 160. Constantine 161. Jean La Fontaine 162. Van Dyck 163. Cervantes 164. Germaine Stael 165. Hippocrates 166. Louis XVIII 167. Clive 168. Rembrandt 169. Denis Diderot 170. Geoffrey Chaucer 171. Michel Montaigne 172. John Napier 173. Sand 174. Marmont 175. Tiberiius 176. Peel 177. Francis I (France) 178. Nicholas I 179. William I 180. John Mill 181. Sophocles 182. John Adams 183. Webster 184. Athanasius 185. Richard Bentley 186. Savonarola 187. Marlborough 188. J. Cook 189. Seneca 190. Zwingle 191. Cavour 192. Buffon 193. Goldsmith 194. Brougham 195. Alexander VI 196. Gerson 197. Alexander I (Russia) 198. Louis XV 199. Roger Bacon 200. Pericles | 201. Herodotus 202. Hadrian 203. Humphry Davy 204. Frederick II (Germany) 205. Catherine II 206. Conde 207. B. Jonson 208. Antony 209. Lucretius 210. Pompey 211. James II (England) 212. Canning 213. Strafford 214. Mencius 215. La Feyette 216. Alexander Hamilton 217. Alfred the Great 218. Pierre Gassendi 219. Cortez 220. Ludwig Beethoven 221. L. Bonaparte 222. Sevigne 223. Xenophon 224. Wycliffe 225. Alfieri 226. Charles X (France) 227. William Harvey 228. Marius 229. Juvenal 230. Firdousee 231. Johannes Gutenberg 232. Lope de Vega Carpio 233. Pierre Laplace 234. Garibaldi 235. Necker 236. Froissart 237. Arius 238. Aeschylus 239. Etienne 240. Epicurus 241. Mithradates 242. Isocrates 243. Jerome 244. Andrew Jackson 245. Canova 246. Atterbury 247. Bulwer 248. Joseph Gay-Lussac 249. Wilhelm I. (Prussia) 250. Barthold Niebuhr 251. Fielding 252. George IV 253. Albrecht Haller 254. Friedrich Schleiermacher 255. James Watt 256. St. Bernard 257. William III 258. Joinville 259. Francois Arago 260. Fouche 261. Handel 262. Edmund Spenser 263. Joseph Lagrange 264. Johann Herder 265. Velasquez 266. Robert Bunsen 267. Alcibiades 278. De Foe 279. Hastings 280. Colbert 281. Metternich 282. Richard I. 283. Tertullian 284. Lamennais 285. Leo X 286. Cobde 287. Gustavus Adolphus 288. Christoph Wieland 289. George Berkeley 290. John Law 281. Maintenon 282. Cranmber 283. Samuel Coleridge 284. Chrysostom 285. Beza 286. Murat 287. Mazzini 288. Marquis de Condorcet 289. Polybius 290. Ariosto 291. Chatterton 292. Phiny (Elder) 293. Turgot 294. Tacitus 295. Nicolas Malebranche 296. John of England 297. Danton 298. Chalmer 299. Germanicus 300. Joseph Haydn | 301. St. Basil 302. William of Orange 303. Longfellow 304. Philip IV 305. Sully 306. Christiaan Huygens 307. Louis VI 308. Charles Montesquieu 309. Eugene 310. Charles II (England) 311. Bernadotte 312. A. Severus 313. Klopstock 314. Innocent III 315. Zoroaster 316. Attila 317. G. Monk 318. Adam Smith 319. Ney 320. Victor Emmanuel 321. Prescott 322. Pindar 323. Beranger 324. Gregory VII 325. Beaumarchais 326. Rossini 327. Jeremy Bentham 328. Drake 329. Moreau 330. Michael Faraday 331. Boetius 332. Thomas Moore 333. S. Clarke 334. Channing 335. Alexander II (Russia) 336. Maria Theresa 337. Richard Wagner 338. Joseph Priestley 339. Josephine 340. Thackeray 341. Nicolaus Copernicus 342. Blucher 343. Soult 344. Maximilian 345. Sadi (or Lazare) Carnot? 346. Philo 347. Averroes 348. Calderon 349. Bolivar 350. Sulla 351. Ali-weli-zade 352. Le Sage 353. Heinrich Heine 354. Robert Boyle 355. Loyola 356. Marie Antoinette 357. Wesley 358. Poussin 359. Winckelmann 360. Turenne 361. R.B.B. Sheridan 362. Weber 363. William Hamilton 364. Avicenna 365. Anthony Shaftesbury 366. Bright 367. Catullus 368. Herman Boerhaave 369. C. Grey 370. Leopold I. (Germany) 371. William Irving 372. Henry IV (Germany) 373. Tamerlane 374. Massena 375. Retz 376. B. Constant 377. Reuchlin 378. Sainte-Beuver 379. Baxter 380. K.W. Humboldt 381. Jenner 382. Justus Liebig 383. Philip II (Germany) 384. Thomas Aquinas 385. Dumouriez 386. Murillo 387. Lucian 388. Agassiz 389. Mehemet Ali 390. Thomas Wolsey 391. Solon 392. Jansen 393. Antoine Lavoisier 394. R. Walpole 395. Hogarth 396. Derby 397. Bichat 398. Sherman 399. Frederick W. III (Prussia) 400. St. Simon | 401. Wilkes 402. Phidias 403. Philip Augustus 404. Moses Mendelssohn 405. Boniface VIII 406. Cobbett 407. Jean Bailly 408. Emerson 409. Joseph II (Germany) 410. Russell 411. Vauban 412. Ferdinand V. (Spain) 413. Bayle 414. Archimedes 415. Christina 416. Scipio 417. Thou 418. T. Fairfax 419. Metastasio 420. Louis IX 421. L. Hopital 422. Marat 423. Guicciardini 424. Jacob Berzelius 425. Akbar 426. Sarpi 427. Marcus Varro 428. Armeniuis 429. Vergniaud 430. Bayard 431. Gregory I. (Pope) 432. Louis XIII 433. Beaton 434. Wilberforce 435. Tieck 436. Andrews 437. Lycurgus 438. O'Connell 439. Burnet 440. Reynolds 441. Seward 442. J. Franklin 443. Galen 444. A. Dumas 445. Alarie 446. Campanella 447. Arnauld 448. Honore Balzac 449. Plautus 450. a' Kemple 451. Richelieu 452. Pius VI. 453. Terence 454. Charles VII. (France) 455. Renan 456. Pizarro 457. Henry II (England) 458. Martial 459. Theodosius 460. R. Blake 461. J. J. Scaliger 462. Cardin 463. Cowper 464. Musset 465. Pius II 466. Villars 467. Helvetius 468. Belisarius 469. Candolle 470. W. Temple 471. Palestrina 472. Robertson 473. David Strauss 474. Kotzebue 475. Bach 476. James Madison 477. Hesiod 478. George I. (England) 479. Dupin 480. F. A. Wolf 481. Geoffroy Hilaire 482. Farragut 483. John Q. Adams 484. Cato (Elder) 485. Gluck 486. Grote 487. Cyrus 488. John Bunyan 489. Grimm, L. 490. L. Bonaparte 491. Antoninus Pius 492. Chesterfield 493. Pius VII 494. Leopardi 495. L. de Medici 496. Richard II 497. Gouvion St. Cyr 498. Gregory Naz 499. Warburton 500. Strabo. |
501-600 | 601-700 | 701-800 | 801-900 | 901-1000 |
501. Euclid 502. Desmoulins 503. Genii 504. Clarendon 505. De Witt 506. Essex 507. Brabe 508. Eusebius 509. Mahmud II 510. Ferdinand VII (Spain) 511. Frederick I (Germany) 512. Leonhard Euler 513. G. Howard 514. Reid 515. Gambetta 516. Ledru-Rollin 517. Ramon Llull 518. Michaelis 519. Mahmud 520. Robert Southey 521. Gaspard Monge 522. Lucullus 523. Hans Oersted 524. Hutten 525. Belden 526. Henry VI 527. Hawthorne 528. Villemain 529. Gall 530. Goldoni 531. Beaumont 532. Aguesseau 533. Beauharnais 534. J. F. Cooper 535. Catiline 536. Clement 537. J. B. Rousseau 538. Castlereagh 539. Bernard Fontenelle 540. Casaubon 541. Cellini 542. Charles VI (France) 543. L. R. St. Simon 544. Lavater 545. Carl Jacobi 546. Herod 547. Margaret of Anjou 548. Philip VI. (France) 549. Richter 550. Voss 551. Mackintosh 552. Lao-Tsze (see: Taoism) 553. Paracelsus 554. Parsing 555. Themistocles 556. J. C. Wolf 557. Andre Ampere 558. George II (England) 559. Huskisson 560. Lachine 561. Albuquerque 562. Jean Bruyere 563. Dalhousie 564. Suwaroff 565. Hampden 566. Coligni 567. Photius 568. Ralph Cudworth 569. Alva 570. Pufendorf 571 Benjamin Thompson 572. Anderson 573. de Malherbe 574. Mary 575. J. B. Jourdan 576. Louis XII 577. Theodoric 578. Barren 579. Titus 580. Ranks 581. Aurelian 582. Caskell 583. Thomas Paine 584. Herbert 585. Lee 586. Phoeion 587. Mme. Roland 588. Henry III (France) 589. St. Pierre 590. Ingres 591. Warwick 592. Garrison 593. Erskine 594. Edmond Halley 595. Cato (younger) 596. Gustavus I 597. Vasco da Game 598. Pierre Maupertuis 599. Guyon 600. Courier | 601. Albertus Magnus 602. Boehme 603. E. T. W. Hoffmann 604. T. E. Hook 605. Marot 606. Henry I. (England) 607. Massillon 608. Quintilian 609. Monmouth 610. Maecenas 611. Philip V 612. Michelet 613. Luxembourg 614. Tintoretto 615. Vespucci 616. Saladin 617. G. Buchannan 618. Henry V (England) 619. Samuel Butler 620. Anselm of Canterbury 621. Francois Rochefoucauld 622. Charles the bold 623. Manutius 624. Gustavus III 625. Cornelius 626. John of Austria 627. Delille 628. Michel Adanson 629. Cherubini 630. Jean Champollion 631. Mornay 632. Sieyes 633. Horace Walpole 634. Genghis Khan 635. Ferdinand Magellan 636. William IV (England) 637. Boleyn 638. Ronsard 639. Meyerbeer 640. Ramus 641. Richard Steele 642. Michael Servetus 643. Orleans d' P. 644. Stephen Gray 645. Josephus 646. Royer-Collard 647. Charles Fourier 648. St. Francis 649. Henry Clay 650. Vincenzo Gioberti 651. Desaix de Voygoux 652. Grattan 653. Raimondo Montecuccoli 654. Sacy 655. Giordano Bruno 656. William Paley 657. Jerome Bonaparte 658. Barras 659. Maury 660. De la Vigne 661. Ali (Ibn abi talib) 662. Cavaignac 663. Cromwell 664. Charles d' Orleans 665. Sterne 666. Malesherbes 667. Middleton 668. Vico 669. Claude Berthollet 670. Jane Grey 671. A. Sidney 672. Salmasius 673. Pliny the younger 674. MacDonald 675. Sallust 676. Saxe 677. Marmontel 678. Clarendon 679. Sylvester II (Gerbert) 680. J. Taylor 681. Jean Lamarck 682. Holbein 683. Henry VII 684. Alessandro Volta 685. Rosa 686. Whiston 687. Hauy 688. Cyprian 689. A. Chenier 690. Diocletian 691. Pompadour 692. John Herschel 693. KauIliad 694. Poggio 695. Holberg 696. Miller 697. Henry IV (England) 698. Oehlenschlager 699. Boden 700. Manes | 701. Sappho 702. Sarto 703. Anaxagoras 704. Isabella of Castile 705. A. W. Schlegel 706. Justin 707. Godoy 708. Epaminondae 709. P. Henry 710. Robert Fulton 711. Dumont d' UrviIle 712. Garrick 713. Andrieu 714. Ginguene 715. Regnard 716. Du °neselin 717. Wellesley 718. H. Vernet 719. George Eliot 720. Fuller 721. Hemclitus 722. Newman 723. Struensee 724. Thorwaldsen 725. Ckopofra 726. Zeno of Elea 727. Pouehkin 728. E. Coke 729. Augereau 730. Bronte 731. Jerome of Prag. 732. Aurungrebe 733. Vespasian 734. Philopeeman 735. Vane 736. Jouffroy 737. Charles Bonnet 738. Giotto 739. Agrippa 740. Alcuin 741. Gregory A Nyasa 742. Pierre Proudhon 743. PoMien 744. Arndt 745. Freret 746. R. Hall 747. Charles IX. (France) 748. Anne 749. Smollett 750. Demetrius Polior 751. Democritus 752. Gay 753. Cabanis 754. J. Flaxman 755. Gallatin 756. Fouquet 757. Cujas Guido Reni 758. C. S. Gracchus 759. Jeffreys 760. Gardiner 761. Oxenstierna 762. Kleber 763. Scipio 764. HabilIon 765. Lackpbde 766. Stewart 767. LyeII 768. Rameau 769. Cassini 770. Lalande 771. Sumner 772. Parker 773. Plotinus 774. Cagliari 775. Lacordaire 776. Marguerite d' ring 777. Larne 778. Kosciusko 779. P. H. Sheridan 780. Tooqueville 781. Hipparchus 782. Henry III. (England) 783. Whitegift 784. Rudolph I. 785. Constantin Volney 786. Jugurtba 787. Prior 788. Mingo 789. Oken 790. Murray 791. Bellarmino 792. Churchill 793. Laffitte 794. Henry II. (Franco) 795. W. Jones 796. J. Owen 797. Cecil 798. Darius I. 799. Charles Edward Stuart 800. Donirotti | 801. Hammer-Purgstall 802. J. L. David 803. Propertius 804. Boileau 805. Leighton 806. Correggio 807. Grouchy 808. Francke 809. Lysias 810. Lannes 811. Donner 812. Pichegru 813. Erigena 814. Casanova 815. C. de Medici 816. Nadir (Shah) 817. Whitefield 818. J. P. J. d'Orleans 819. Lucan 820. Terriers 821. Richard III 822. ApeIles 823. Meckiewitz 824. Ximinee 825. Sobieski 826. E. Irving 827. Stein 828. Hoche 829. Louvois 830. Saadi 831. Montague 832. Alfonso X 833. Scribe 834. Oudino 835. Robert Livingston 836. E. Herbert 837. Friedrich Schlegel 838. Mariana 839. Rienzi 840. Sixtus V 841. Hahnemann 842. CeIsm 843. von Gentz 844. Deak 845. Pym 846. Gustavus IV 847. Monroe 848. Carl Gauss 849. Keats 850. C. Bell 851. Godwin 852. De la Croix 853. Charles VI (Germany) 854. Edward IV 855. Ennius 856. Epictetus 857. Ferdinand II 858. Harold II 859. Zeno of Citium 860. Fiesole 861. Pestalozzi 862. Dundonald 863. Tippoo Sahib 864. Clovis 865. Huet 866. Maistre 867. Cagliostro 868. John Ray 869. Thomas Malthus 870. Atticus 871. Barrow 872. Somers 873. Arkwright 874. Christopher Wren 875. Quinet 876. Nodier 877. Krudener 878. Bede 879. Claude of Lorraine 880. Theocritus 881. L. Stanislaus 882. Joseph Hooker 883. P. Sidney 884. Milner 885. Maimonidea 886. Odoacer 887. Henault 888. Theresa 889. Barthez 890. Espartero 891. Decazes 892. Harriet Martineau 893. T. Brown 894. Fermat 895. Agathocles 896. Empedocles 897. Charles V 898. Banks 899. Zinzendorf 900. Thierry | 901. T. S. Gracchus 902. Delambre 903. Caligula 904. Edward III (England) 905. Richardson 906. Porphyry 907. Nicole 908. Waller 909. Balboa 910. Solyman 911. Catherine de Medici 912. La Harpe 913. Pole 914. Thales 915. Maria de Medici 916. Procopius 917. Lactantius 918. Borgia 919. Berengarius de Tours 920. Tallien 921. Camden 922. Armstrong 923. Jeffrey 924. Capo 925. Sismondi 926. R. Owen → Robert Owen | Richard Owen? 927. Apuleius 928. St, Just 929. Spontini 930. W. Laud 931. Irenaeus 932. Lacretelle 933. J. B. Lull 934. Paul I (Russia) 935. Stilicho 936. Arbuthnot 937. Dampier 938. Auber 939. Gregoire 940. Dole 941. La Chaise 942. Francis II (Germany) 943. Dolomieu 944. Aesop 945. F. M. Grimm 946. Dupuytren 947. M. J. Brutus 948. Ludwig Feuerbach 949. Barnaveldt 950. Farel 951. Akenside (Ѻ) 952. Prince Albert 953. Bouillon 954. Hauser 955. Frederick Wilhelm II (Prussia) 956. Cerando 957. William Wallace 958. Chamfort 959. Agrippa 960. Garat 961. Audubon 962. A. Doria 963. Hareeree 964. Cowley 965. Heyne 966. Martinez 967. Petronius 968. Hortense 969. Mahommed II 970. Mai 971. Sue 972. J. Barry 973. Marivaux 974. Sebastian 975. Rotrou 976. W. Russell 977. Suchet 978. Paoli 979. Bopp 980. Romilly 981. Montalembert 982. John XXII 983. Rohan 984. Iamblicus 985. Bernhard 986. Simonides 987. Bagpsen 988. Raspail 989. William Thomson 990. Louis I 991. Otho 992. Sertorius 993. Macpherson 994. Claudianus 995. Domitian 996. Bugeaud 997. Charles I (Naples) 998. Fauriel 999. Enfantin 1000. Babeuf |
“As we come nearer to our own times it becomes increasingly difficult to measure tendencies by the methods we are using. The positions of men on the list are subject to larger probable and constant errors. Byron may be a household word on the continent and Shelley unknown, while the best criticism may place Shelley above Byron. Our list places Mendelssohn above Bach and ignores Schumann altogether—while the last thirty years have altered not only critical opinion, but also popular taste.”
“It is an unquestionable fact, and one melancholy to contemplate, that during the sixty years which succeeded the death of Descartes, France had not possessed a single man who dared to think for himself. Metaphysicians, moralists, historians, all had become tainted by the servility of that bad age. During two generations, no Frenchman had been allowed to discuss with freedom any question either of politics or of religion. The consequence was, that the largest intellects, excluded from their legitimate field, lost their energy; the national spirit died away; the very materials and nutriment of thought seemed to be wanting.”— Henry Buckle (1856), History of Civilization, Volume One (pgs. 524-25)