I-III. Neujahrsblatt, herausgegeben von der Feuerwerker-Gesellschaft in Zürich auf das Jahr 1806-1808

8vo. f. [1] (map), pp. 8; f. [1] (map), pp. 8; f. [1] (map), pp. 8.

First three volumes of a periodical published by the Zurich-based Feuerwerker Gesellschaft. Every volume contains an article dealing with the crushed Helvetian uprising against the Romans (68 CE). All articles open with a full-page military map of the area and an aquatint vignette after drawings by Johann Martin Usteri, the first by Johann Heinrich Lips, the second and third by Franz Hegi.

The third article, ‘Schweizerische Kriegsgeschichte bis an das Ende des XV. Jahrhunderts. I–III: Krieg der Helvetier gegen Cäsar,’ features the epitaph of the daughter of Julius Alpinula, the leader of the uprising, Julia Alpinula, who died soon after her attempt to save her father’s life. The story was in fact a humanist hoax based on a fabricated epitaph by Paulus Merula. The third volume of the present work ends with the Latin text on the tombstone, which was described as having been discovered 1500 years after her death in 69 CE and was included in an epigraphic study of the well-respected Leiden scholar Justus Lipsius. It appears as a a colored engraving by Franz Hegi of the (imaginary) tombstone among the ruins, surrounded by coin-portraits of the Four Emperors. Alpinula became a Romantic celebrity who even inspired Lord Byron. It was the Swiss classicist scholar Johann Caspar von Orelli (1789-1849) who finally proved the story to be a myth. See also A. Freeman, Julia Alpinula, pseudo-Heroine of Helvetia. How a Forged Renaissance Epitaph Fostered a National Myth. London, 2015.

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