Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon, oil painting by Henry Walton, 1774; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Edward Gibbon
British historian
Edward Gibbon (born May 8 [April 27, Old Style], 1737, Putney, Surrey, Englandâdied January 16, 1794, London) was an English rationalist historian and scholar best known as the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776â88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century ce to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Gibbonâs grandfather, Edward, had made a considerable fortune and his father, also Edward, was able to live an...