ABSTRACT
In 1860 a retiring and then little-known Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt published what was to become one of the most famous and enduring historical works written in the nineteenth century, The civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy. Initially, like many famous books, it made little impact, but later editions established the reputation of its author. Burckhardt had been born in 1818 into a minor, clerical branch of a distinguished Basel family. After his student days and a brief and unhappy spell as editor of the Easier Zeitung (an occupation that “devours the poet in one”) and lecturing at the university of Basel, he took up an appointment at the new Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. Then in 1858 the forty-year-old Burckhardt was appointed Professor of History at the small provincial university (only 200 students) in his native town. He also taught at the Basel Pedagogium and gave popular public lectures. In 1874 he added the professorship in the History of Art to his chair of History. He resigned the latter in 1885 but remained professor of the History of Art until 1893. He died four years later. The great appeal of Basel was that it allowed him intellectual freedom (“I can say what I like”). He turned down offers of more prestigious positions elsewhere, including perhaps the most distinguished history post in the German-speaking world as successor to his former teacher Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) at the University of Berlin.
