Hildegard of Bingen

Theologian · 1225 – 1274

Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian theologian and philosopher whose synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy became central to Catholic thought and the high point of scholasticism.

• Summa Theologica
• Reconciling faith and reason

Why A fellow towering figure of medieval Christian intellectual life, in a different generation and mode.

Mathematician · 360 – 415

Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer and Neoplatonist philosopher of late-antique Alexandria, the most prominent woman scholar of the ancient world, whose brutal murder came to symbolize the end of classical learning.

• Leading the Neoplatonist school of Alexandria
• Mathematics and astronomy

Why An earlier woman scholar who, like Hildegard, achieved rare intellectual prominence in a male-dominated world.

Theologian · 354 – 430

Augustine of Hippo was a Roman North African theologian and philosopher whose works, including Confessions and City of God, shaped Western Christianity and laid intellectual foundations for medieval and modern thought.

• Confessions
• City of God

Why Also a theologian & writer · Comparable historical impact

Theologian · 1483 – 1546

Martin Luther was a German theologian and reformer whose challenge to the Catholic Church sparked the Protestant Reformation and reshaped the religious, political and cultural landscape of Europe.

• Ninety-Five Theses
• The Protestant Reformation

Why Also a theologian & writer · Comparable historical impact

Humanist · 1466 – 1536

Erasmus was a Dutch humanist, scholar and writer, the leading intellectual of the Northern Renaissance, whose satire In Praise of Folly and pioneering edition of the Greek New Testament shaped both literature and the coming Reformation.

• In Praise of Folly
• Greek New Testament

Why Also a writer & theologian · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1712 – 1778

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan-French philosopher, writer, and composer whose ideas on the social contract, the general will, and natural human goodness shaped modern political thought, education, and the Romantic movement.

• The Social Contract
• The general will

Why Also a writer & composer · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1861 – 1941

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, writer, composer and polymath who reshaped Indian literature and music and, in 1913, became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

• Gitanjali
• Nobel Prize in Literature 1913

Why Also a writer & composer · Comparable historical impact

Poet · 1830 – 1886

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who lived in near-seclusion and published almost nothing in her lifetime, yet whose nearly 1,800 original, compressed poems made her, after her death, one of the most important poets in the English language.

• Nearly 1,800 poems
• Reclusive life

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Composer · 1810 – 1849

Frédéric Chopin was a Polish-French Romantic composer and virtuoso pianist whose deeply expressive works for solo piano — nocturnes, études, polonaises and mazurkas — made him one of the most influential composers for the instrument.

• Nocturnes
• Études

Why Also a composer · Comparable historical impact

Novelist · 1775 – 1817

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose witty, incisive novels of manners, including Pride and Prejudice and Emma, are masterpieces of English literature and remain enduringly popular.

• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensibility

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1759 – 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English Enlightenment writer and philosopher, a pioneer of feminist thought whose A Vindication of the Rights of Woman argued for the education and equality of women.

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• Founding feminist philosophy

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Composer · 1840 – 1893

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian Romantic composer whose richly emotional music — including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture — made him one of the most popular and widely performed composers in the world.

• Swan Lake
• The Nutcracker

Why Also a composer · Comparable historical impact

Novelist · 1890 – 1976

Agatha Christie was an English writer, the best-selling novelist of all time, whose ingenious detective stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple made her the undisputed "Queen of Crime".

• Hercule Poirot
• Miss Marple

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1894 – 1963

Aldous Huxley was an English writer and philosopher whose dystopian novel Brave New World became one of the most influential warnings of the 20th century, imagining a future enslaved not by terror but by pleasure and conditioning.

• Brave New World
• The Doors of Perception

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Novelist · 1802 – 1870

Alexandre Dumas was a French writer whose swashbuckling historical novels — The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo — became some of the most popular and widely adapted stories in the world.

• The Three Musketeers
• The Count of Monte Cristo

Why Also a writer · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1126 – 1198

Averroes was a philosopher and polymath of Al-Andalus whose commentaries on Aristotle profoundly shaped medieval European philosophy and the relationship between reason and faith.

• Commentaries on Aristotle
• Defending reason and philosophy

Why Also a polymath · Worked in medicine

Physician · 980 – 1037

Avicenna was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, one of the greatest physicians and philosophers of the medieval world, whose Canon of Medicine was a standard text for six centuries.

• The Canon of Medicine
• The Book of Healing

Why Also a polymath · Worked in medicine

Composer · 1770 – 1827

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, one of the greatest musicians in history, who bridged the Classical and Romantic eras and composed masterpieces even after going deaf.

• The Ninth Symphony
• Für Elise

Why Also a composer · Worked in music

Naturalist · 1769 – 1859

Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian naturalist and explorer whose pioneering expeditions and best-selling books — including the vast Cosmos — founded modern geography and ecology and made him one of the most famous scientists and authors of his age.

• Cosmos
• Scientific exploration of the Americas

Why Also a writer · Worked in natural history

Poet · 1265 – 1321

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet of the late Middle Ages whose masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, is considered one of the greatest works of world literature and helped establish the Italian language.

• The Divine Comedy
• Inferno

Why Also a writer · Active in the same era

Explorer · 1254 – 1324

Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and explorer whose travels across Asia to the court of Kublai Khan, recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo, gave medieval Europe its most influential account of the East.

• The Travels of Marco Polo
• Journey to Yuan China

Why Also a writer · Active in the same era

Poet · 1343 – 1400

Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet and civil servant of the 14th century, called the "Father of English literature", whose Canterbury Tales established English as a language worthy of great poetry.

• The Canterbury Tales
• Father of English literature

Why Also a writer · Active in the same era

Novelist · 973 – 1014

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese noblewoman and writer of the Heian court whose Tale of Genji, written around 1010, is often called the world's first novel and a masterpiece of world literature.

• The Tale of Genji
• World's first novel

Why Also a writer · Active in the same era

Poet · 1207 – 1273

Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic verse on divine love became some of the most beloved poetry in the world and made him, centuries later, one of the most widely read poets in the West.

• The Masnavi
• Sufi mystical poetry

Why Also a theologian · Active in the same era