BURCKHARDT, JACOB (CHRISTOPHER)

born May 25, 1818, Basel, Switz. died Aug. 8, 1897, Basel Jacob Christopher also spelled Jakob Christoph one of the first great historians of art and culture, whose Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (1860; The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, 1878, reprinted 1945) became a model for the treatment of cultural history in general.