Who Was Alive
Ludvig Holberg
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ludvig Holberg

Danish writer and philosopher

Born 3 December 1684 · died 28 January 1754, aged 69

Who was alive at the same time as Ludvig Holberg?

  1. John Locke, 1632 – 1704
  2. Louis XIV, 1638 – 1715
  3. Isaac Newton, 1642 – 1727
  4. Matsuo Bashō, 1644 – 1694
  5. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716
  6. Jonathan Swift, 1667 – 1745
  7. Peter the Great, 1672 – 1725
  8. Antonio Vivaldi, 1678 – 1741
  9. Ludvig Holberg, 1684 – 1754
  10. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 – 1750
  11. Voltaire, 1694 – 1778
  12. Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790
  13. Leonhard Euler, 1707 – 1783
  14. Carl Linnaeus, 1707 – 1778
  15. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778
  16. Adam Smith, 1723 – 1790
  17. Immanuel Kant, 1724 – 1804
  18. James Cook, 1728 – 1779
  19. George Washington, 1732 – 1799
  20. John Adams, 1735 – 1826
  21. Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826
  22. Francisco Goya, 1746 – 1828
  23. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832
  24. James Madison, 1751 – 1836

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Ludvig Holberg was born, Isaac Newton was 41, John Locke was 52, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was 38, Matsuo Bashō was 39 or 40 and Louis XIV was 46.

When Ludvig Holberg died, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was 4, George Washington was 21, Voltaire was 59, Immanuel Kant was 29 and Jean-Jacques Rousseau was 41.

Born during Ludvig Holberg’s lifetime: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, George Washington, Johann Sebastian Bach, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson.

Not quite contemporaries: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born about 2 years after Ludvig Holberg died, Ludwig van Beethoven was born about 14 years after Ludvig Holberg died, Molière died about 11 years before Ludvig Holberg was born and Friedrich Schiller was born about 5 years after Ludvig Holberg died.

What happened in Ludvig Holberg’s lifetime

Where Ludvig Holberg’s contemporaries were born

Ludvig Holberg is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (81 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Ludvig Holberg

The 150 best-known contemporaries

239 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Ludvig Holberg. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1719.

  1. Isaac Newton 1642 – 1727
  2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832
  3. George Washington 1732 – 1799
  4. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 – 1750
  5. Voltaire 1694 – 1778
  6. Immanuel Kant 1724 – 1804
  7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 – 1778
  8. Adam Smith 1723 – 1790
  9. Thomas Jefferson 1743 – 1826
  10. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790
  11. Carl Linnaeus 1707 – 1778
  12. John Locke 1632 – 1704
  13. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646 – 1716
  14. Matsuo Bashō 1644 – 1694
  15. Leonhard Euler 1707 – 1783
  16. Francisco Goya 1746 – 1828
  17. John Adams 1735 – 1826
  18. James Cook 1728 – 1779
  19. Louis XIV 1638 – 1715
  20. Peter the Great 1672 – 1725
  21. James Madison 1751 – 1836
  22. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
  23. Jonathan Swift 1667 – 1745
  24. Montesquieu 1689 – 1755
  25. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
  26. James Watt 1736 – 1819
  27. David Hume 1711 – 1776
  28. Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
  29. Catherine the Great 1729 – 1796
  30. Denis Diderot 1713 – 1784
  31. Jean de La Fontaine 1621 – 1695
  32. Daniel Defoe c. 1661 – 1731
  33. Thomas Paine 1737 – 1809
  34. Samuel Johnson 1709 – 1784
  35. Antoine Lavoisier 1743 – 1794
  36. Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749 – 1827
  37. Frederick the Great 1712 – 1786
  38. Edmund Burke 1729 – 1797
  39. Alexander Pope 1688 – 1744
  40. Christiaan Huygens 1629 – 1695
  41. Jean Racine 1639 – 1699
  42. Alessandro Volta 1745 – 1827
  43. Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691
  44. Jean Le Rond d'Alembert 1717 – 1783
  45. William Herschel 1738 – 1822
  46. Edward Jenner 1749 – 1823
  47. George Berkeley 1685 – 1753
  48. Mikhail Lomonosov 1711 – 1765
  49. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744 – 1829
  50. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 1632 – 1723
  51. Charles Perrault 1628 – 1703
  52. George III 1738 – 1820
  53. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 1729 – 1781
  54. Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
  55. Louis XV 1710 – 1774
  56. Maria Theresa 1717 – 1780
  57. Giacomo Casanova 1725 – 1798
  58. Marquis de Sade 1740 – 1814
  59. Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794
  60. Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1736 – 1813
  61. Robert Hooke 1635 – 1703
  62. Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
  63. Charles-Augustin de Coulomb 1736 – 1806
  64. Edmond Halley 1656 – 1742
  65. Anders Celsius 1701 – 1744
  66. Charles II of England 1630 – 1685
  67. Isabelle de Charrière 1740 – 1805
  68. John Dryden 1631 – 1700
  69. Pope Pius VII 1742 – 1823
  70. Aurangzeb 1618 – 1707
  71. Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais 1732 – 1799
  72. Carlo Goldoni 1707 – 1793
  73. Anne, Queen of Great Britain 1665 – 1714
  74. Jacques-Louis David 1748 – 1825
  75. Joseph Priestley 1733 – 1804
  76. Pope Benedict XIV 1675 – 1758
  77. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707 – 1788
  78. William III of England 1650 – 1702
  79. Robert Walpole 1676 – 1745
  80. Pope Pius VI 1717 – 1799
  81. Alexander Suvorov 1730 – 1800
  82. Henry Cavendish 1731 – 1810
  83. James II of England 1633 – 1701
  84. Joseph Addison 1672 – 1719
  85. George II of Great Britain 1683 – 1760
  86. Daniel Bernoulli 1700 – 1782
  87. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi 1746 – 1827
  88. Emanuel Swedenborg 1688 – 1772
  89. Jean-Paul Marat 1743 – 1793
  90. Christina, Queen of Sweden 1626 – 1689
  91. Christopher Wren 1632 – 1723
  92. Pope Clement XII 1652 – 1740
  93. Nicolas Appert 1749 – 1841
  94. Pope Innocent XI 1611 – 1689
  95. Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux 1636 – 1711
  96. George I of Great Britain 1660 – 1727
  97. Elizabeth of Russia 1709 – 1762
  98. Peter III of Russia 1728 – 1762
  99. Abigail Adams 1744 – 1818
  100. John III Sobieski 1629 – 1696
  101. Vitus Bering 1681 – 1741
  102. John Bunyan 1628 – 1688
  103. Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit 1686 – 1736
  104. Joseph II 1741 – 1790
  105. Charles II of Spain 1661 – 1700
  106. Pope Clement XIII 1693 – 1769
  107. William Hogarth 1697 – 1764
  108. Henry Fielding 1707 – 1754
  109. Baron d'Holbach 1723 – 1789
  110. Oliver Goldsmith 1728 – 1774
  111. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 1742 – 1799
  112. Pope Benedict XIII 1649 – 1730
  113. Pope Innocent XIII 1655 – 1724
  114. Christoph Willibald Gluck 1714 – 1787
  115. Pope Alexander VIII 1610 – 1691
  116. Pope Innocent XII 1615 – 1700
  117. Ole Rømer 1644 – 1710
  118. Pope Clement XI 1649 – 1721
  119. Luigi Galvani 1737 – 1798
  120. Mary II 1662 – 1694
  121. Giambattista Vico 1668 – 1744
  122. Charles XII of Sweden 1682 – 1718
  123. Philip V of Spain 1683 – 1746
  124. Catherine I of Russia 1684 – 1727
  125. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 1685 – 1740
  126. Nader Shah c. 1693 – 1747
  127. Pope Clement XIV 1705 – 1774
  128. Carl Wilhelm Scheele 1742 – 1786
  129. Olympe de Gouges 1748 – 1793
  130. Giovanni Domenico Cassini 1625 – 1712
  131. Jean de La Bruyère 1645 – 1696
  132. Jacob Bernoulli c. 1655 – 1705
  133. Laurence Sterne 1713 – 1768
  134. Maria Gaetana Agnesi 1718 – 1799
  135. Aphra Behn 1640 – 1689
  136. Anna of Russia 1693 – 1740
  137. John Wesley 1703 – 1791
  138. Claude Adrien Helvétius 1715 – 1771
  139. Charles Messier 1730 – 1817
  140. Giuseppe Piazzi 1746 – 1826
  141. Juana Inés de la Cruz 1651 – 1695
  142. Johann Bernoulli 1667 – 1748
  143. Georg Philipp Telemann 1681 – 1767
  144. Peter II of Russia 1715 – 1730
  145. Charles III of Spain 1716 – 1788
  146. Ahmad Shah Durrani c. 1722 – 1772
  147. Mikhail Kutuzov 1747 – 1813
  148. Antonio Salieri 1750 – 1825
  149. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1640 – 1705
  150. Mehmed IV 1642 – 1693