Jacob Christoph Burckhardt

Jacob Christoph Burckhardt , 1818-97, Swiss historian, one of the founders of the cultural interpretation of history. He studied under Ranke at the Univ. of Berlin and taught (1844-53, 1858-93) art history and history at the Univ. of Basel. His best-known work is Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, available in many English editions). It remains the classic on the subject, although its primarily political and cultural interpretation of the Renaissance is controversial among historians. Believing in a pattern of culture peculiar to each age, Burckhardt found the shift from corporate medieval society to the modern spirit occurring in Italy in the 14th and 15th cent. The strife between empire and papacy had created a political and moral vacuum, leading to the birth of the modern self-conscious state and the liberation of the creative individual. Burckhardt saw Renaissance humanism as the revival of classical antiquity, and the era as one of man's joyous new discovery of himself and the world about him. He profoundly influenced his friend Nietzsche , and the work of J. A. Symonds is based largely on Burckhardt's synthesis. In The Age of Constantine the Great (1852, tr. 1949), Burckhardt analyzed the transition from classical times to the Middle Ages. Among his other works on history and art is Cicerone (1855), a guide to Italian art. Selections from his posthumously published lecture notes on ancient Greece have appeared in translation as The Greeks and Greek Civilization (1998). Burckhardt feared that spiritual and aesthetic human values were doomed to submersion by the rise of industrial democracy.

Burckhardt, Jacob (b Basle, 25 May 1818; d Basle, 8 Aug. 1897). Swiss historian, professor at the universities of Zurich (1855–8) and Basle (1858–93). Much of his work was devoted to the history of art and culture and he is best known for his book Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy), published in 1860. In this survey of the arts, philosophy, politics, etc., of the period he propounds the view that it was at this time that man, previously conscious of himself ‘only as a member of a race, people, party, family or corporation’, became aware of himself as ‘a spiritual individual’. This romanticized view has been highly influential but also much attacked. Burckhardt's other books include Cicerone (1855), a guidebook to Italian art that was a popular handbook for German tourists for many years, and Erinnerungen aus Rubens (Recollections of Rubens), published posthumously in 1898. Wölfflin, his former student, succeeded him at Basle University.