5-8yr old hardback histoical novel tracing the life of one male member
of a wealthy printing family in Rome thru his career in Italian
military as a mountaineer in the Dolomites, a deserter in Greece, a
prisoner in a quarry, and finally a Prussian officer's scribe.

salmonslinger-ga,

I believe the book you are looking for is Mark Helprin's "A Soldier of
the Great War." I read this book some seven or eight years ago, and to
the best of my memory, it included all of the features you mention
except for the Prussian Officer's scribe. I belive he ends up being
secretary to a crazed Italian in the War Office who is responsible for
much misery, but I could be remembering wrong. I've pasted in a direct
link to the book on Amazon below.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380715899/qid=1027273935/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-8036950-3667055

Please feel free to reject this answer if I got it wrong,

morris-ga