Edward Gibbon is known primarily as the author of one great book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), a book that is for a variety of reasons—historical, historiographic, stylistic and cultural—so very great that we may be tempted to speak of Gibbon in absolute terms as England’s first great historian.
English history-writing did not commence with Gibbon’s Decline, but with the possible exception of Lord Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars (published posthumously in 1702-1704), there was no eminent native historian before him. The English writing that Gibbon himself set out from included middle-brow Anglican histories that he read as a...
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Citation: Mankin, Robert. "Edward Gibbon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1726, accessed 20 March 2026.]
