Jacob Burckhardt (May 25, 1818–August 8, 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture.

He was born in Basel, educated there and in Neuchâtel, and, till 1839, intended to be a pastor. In 1838 he made his first journey to Italy, and also published his first important articles, Bemerkungen über schweizerische Kathedralen ("Remarks about Swiss Cathedrals"). In 1839 he went to the University of Berlin, where he studied until 1843, spending part of 1841 at Bonn, where he was a pupil of Franz Kugler, the art historian, to whom his first book, Die Kunstwerke der belgischen Städte (1842), was dedicated. He was professor of history at the University of Basel (1845–1847, 1849-1855 and 1858–1893) and at the federal polytechnic school at Zürich (1855–1858).

In 1847 he brought out new editions of Kugler's two great works, Geschichte der Malerei and Kunstgeschichte, and in 1853 published his own work, Die Zeit Constantins des Grossen ("The Age of Constantine the Great"). He spent the greater part of the years 1853–1854 in Italy, where he collected the materials for one of his most famous works, Der Cicerone: Eine Anleitung zum Genuss der Kunstwerke Italiens, which was dedicated to Kugler and appeared in 1855 (7th German edition, 1899).

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