Your comment should answer your question -- there's really no fair comparison between them considering how far apart their eras were. It was much "easier" makin

Your comment should answer your question -- there's really no fair comparison between them considering how far apart their eras were. It was much "easier" making new discoveries back then (there were simply fewer mathematicians, and maths itself was much younger). Making any significant contribution in modern times is so much more difficult. It's said within algebraic geometry most mathematicians will publish perhaps a handful of papers in their lifetime -- it takes too long to even get up to speed with the subject before you are able to start contributing.