Mémoires critiques, Pour servir d’Eclaircissements sur divers Points de l’histoire ancienne de la Suisse, et sur les monuments d’antiquité Qui la concernent; avec une nouvelle Carte de la Suisse Ancienne. Par Mr. Loÿs de Bochat [...] Tome premier

Full title: Mémoires critiques, Pour servir d’Eclaircissements sur divers Points de l’histoire ancienne de la Suisse, et sur les monuments d’antiquité Qui la concernent; avec une nouvelle Carte de la Suisse Ancienne. Par Mr. Loÿs de Bochat, Lieutenant Ballival de Lausanne. Tome premier.

First of 3 volumes in folio. pp. [3] (blank), [2], [viii], ix-xxiv, 588, f. [1] (blank). Mottled calf. Gilded spine on 5 bars, red panel, red edges. Marbled pastedowns. Plate: Daniel Cave. Note on first title page: ‘de la bibliotheque de la Chevaliere d’Eon.’ Frontispiece signed "Delamonce inv., Soubeyran Sculp.". Contains illustrations, folded plates, map (on 4 sheets, folded). Engraved title vignette, some engraved head pieces, historiated initials, tailpieces. In French, with some quotations in Greek and Latin. 

First edition, giving the ‘Julia’ inscription from Janus Gruter (see Bib# 966733/Fr# 251 in this collection) but noting that it ‘ne se voit plus à Avenche.’ This inscription was a forged epitaph of the mythical priestess of Aventicum, ‘Julia Alpinula,’ a victim of Rome’s transalpine conquests later celebrated by Byron and many others as a heroine of first-century Helvetia. The imaginary inscription, as communicated by Merula to Justus Lipsius, was first published among the Auctarium Lipsius added to the Inscriptionum antiquarum of Martin Smetius (Leiden, 1588), and reprinted by Janus Gruter. See A. Freeman, Julia Alpinula, pseudo-Heroine of Helvetia. How a Forged Renaissance Epitaph Fostered a National Myth. London, 2015, pp. 15-16.

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