Adolphe Thiers

Thiers, (Louis) Adolphe (1797–1877), a French statesman and historian. For many years a notable figure in French politics, he helped start the Revolution of 1830 (in which Charles X was dethroned) and headed the government following the revolution against Napoleon III in 1870.

Alcuin

Alcuin, (735-804), an English theologian, philosopher, and scholar. As adviser to the Frankish king Charlemagne on educational, cultural, and church affairs, he helped to bring about a revival of learning in Europe.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Lamartine, Alphonse de (1790–1869), a French poet and statesman. His Poetic Meditations (1820) is often credited with beginning the Romantic movement in French poetry.

Arnold J. Toynbee

Toynbee, Arnold J. (Joseph) (1889–1975), a British historian and philosopher of history.

Baron Acton

Acton, Baron, John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, First Baron Acton of Aldenham (1834–1902), an English historian.

Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu

Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de (1689–1755), a French political philosopher.

Barthold G. Niebuhr

Bartolome De Las Casas

Las Casas, Bartolomé de (1474–1566), a Spanish missionary in Latin America. Called “the Apostle of the Indies,” he carried on a long crusade against mistreatment of the Indians.

Earl of Clarendon

Clarendon, Edward Hyde, First Earl of (1609–1674), an English statesman and historian.

Edward Gibbon

Gibbon, Edward (1737–1794), an English historian. Gibbon's six-volume The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88) was immediately recognized as a masterpiece because of its scholarship and high literary quality.

Einhard

Einhard or Eginhard (770?–840), the biographer of Charlemagne. His brief Life of Charlemagne, written before 821, and his Letters are important sources for the history of the time.

Ernest Renan

Renan, (Joseph) Ernest (1823–1892), a French philosopher, historian, and philologist.

Eusebius of Caesarea

Eusebius of Caesarea, (260?–340?), a Christian scholar and writer, called “the Father of Church History.” He became bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about 315 and was a leader in the First Council of Nicaea (325).

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth m$on'-m ŭ th (1100?–1154), an English writer and historian.

Giorgio Vasari

Vasari, Giorgio (1511–1574), an Italian painter, author, and architect. His Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters and Sculptors from Cimabue to the Present Time (1550, revised and enlarged 1568) laid a foundation for later writers on the history of Italian Renaissance art.