Famous Swiss Historians

Swiss cultural historian and historiographer Jacob Burckhardt is best remembered for his work on the history of Italian Renaissance, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Born to a Protestant clergyman, he initially studied theology but later switched to history. He was associated with the University of Basel for most of his life.

François Bonivard was a nobleman and historian whose life was the inspiration for Lord Byron's 1816 poem The Prisoner of Chillon. He was a partisan of the Protestant Reformation and a Geneva patriot at the time of the Republic of Geneva. His life was tumultuous, and by most accounts, he was a libertine. He was married four times.