Neujahrsblatt, der Aargauischen Jugend geweiht von der Brugger Bezirksgesellschaft für vaterländische Cultur. 1821

8vo. f. [1], pp. 22, f. [1] (blank). Third issue of a periodical by the Regional Cultural Association of Brugg (1819-29), featuring texts by the curate and Latin teacher Johann Heinrich Fisch in the issues of 1820, 1821 and 1822. The 1821 issue is the first edition of “Vindonissa; oder, Helvetien unter den Römern" and has a frontispiece by Franz Hegi depicting the legendary Helvetian heroine Julia Alpinula prostrating herself before the Roman general Caecina to spare her father, the leader of a crushed Helvetian uprising. At p. 11 her epitaph is described as having been discovered 1500 years after her death in 69 CE.

The story of the young priestess Julia Alpinula was invented by the Dutch humanist Paulus Merula, who fabricated Alpinula’s epitaph in Latin, which was included in an epigraphic study of the well-respected Leiden scholar Justus Lipsius. 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 Alpinula 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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