Jacob Burckhardt

Jacob Burckhardt
Burkhardt in 1892
Born	(1818-05-25)25 May 1818 Basel, Switzerland
Died	8 August 1897(1897-08-08) (aged 79) Basel, Switzerland
Alma mater	University of Bonn
Notable work	The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien; 1860)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
Institutions	University of Basel Federal Polytechnic School
Main interests	History of art Cultural history

Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history.^[1] Sigfried Giedion described Burckhardt's achievement in the following terms: "The great discoverer of the age of the Renaissance, he first showed how a period should be treated in its entirety, with regard not only for its painting, sculpture and architecture, but for the social institutions of its daily life as well."^[2]

His best known work is The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860).