Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) is known as the father of modern historiography in the English-speaking world. Also a writer and member of parliament, Gibbon is primarily remembered for his now-published masterpiece. Born into a wealthy bourgeois family, Gibbon attended various educational institutions, and his youth was divided between Protestantism and Catholicism. He lived for five years in Lausanne after converting to Catholicism, but, on his father's orders, he eventually reconverted to Protestantism, which in some ways reflects the transformations that European intellectual life was undergoing at the time. During the Seven Years' War, he enlisted and served in the militia. With the end of the war, in 1762, he traveled to Rome, where he acknowledged having finally found the greatest purpose of his studies. Back in England, he began a history of the city of Rome, then a history of Switzerland, and other projects, some of which remained unfinished or were later incorporated into other works. After his father's death, he settled in London, actively participated in political life, serving as a member of parliament for many years and dedicating most of his time to writing several books, primarily of a historical nature. He died after a prolonged illness.