The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon. Printed verbatim from hitherto unpublished MSS., with an introduction by the Earl of Sheffield

Edward Gibbon decided to write about Rome's collapse while he was visiting ruins in Italy; twelve years later, in 1776, he released the first volume of his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, putting himself among the foremost historians of his time. As a teenager, Gibbon converted to Catholicism, leading his irate father to send him to live with a Calvinist in Switzerland. There, Gibbon perfected his knowledge of Latin and became fluent in French; even after he returned to England and converted back to Protestantism, Gibbon wrote many articles in the latter language. His Decline and Fall remains a mammoth among all historical studies.