Jacob Burckhardt
Jacob Burckhardt was born on May 25, 1818. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Jacob Burckhardt
Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (; Swiss Standard German: [ˈbʊrkhart]; 25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). He is known as one of the major progenitors of cultural history. 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."