Roger Joseph Boscovich

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Roger Joseph Boscovich (May 18, 1711 – February 13, 1787) was a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, and Jesuit from Ragusa (then an independent state, today Dubrovnik in Croatia) who later lived in England, France and Italy.

He is famous for his atomic theory, given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics. This work inspired Michael Faraday to develop field theory for electromagnetic interaction, and was even a basis for Albert Einstein's attempts for a unified field theory, according to Einstein's coworker Lancelot Law Whyte. Boscovich also gave many important contributions to astronomy, including the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a planet from three observations of its position.

Biography

Early years

Boscovich was born on May 18 1711 in the Republic of Ragusa, an independent republic at the time. He was the seventh child of Nikola Bošković, a Slavic merchant, who hailed from Orahov Do, near Ravno, in Herzegovina. His father died when Roger was ten, because of colic complications.

Roger's mother, Paola Bettera, was a member of a cultivated Italian merchant family. She had nine children: Roger was her eighth child and the youngest of six sons. At the age of 8 or 9, after acquiring the rudiments of reading and writing from the priest Nicola (Nikot) Nicchei of the Church of St Nicholas, Roger was sent for his schooling to the local Jesuit Collegium Regusinum. During his early studies Roger Boscovich had shown a distinct propensity for further intellectual development. He had gained a reputation at school for having an easy memory and a quick, deep mind. On September 16, 1725, Roger Boscovich left Ragusa to Rome. He was in the care of two Jesuit priests who took him to the Society of Jesus, famous for its education of youth and at that time having some 800 establishments and 200,000 pupils under its control throughout the world. We learn nothing from Boscovich himself from the time he entered the novitiate to 1731, but it was the usual practice for novices to spend the first two years not in the Collegium Romanum, but in S. Andrea delle Fratte on the Quirinal, the highest of the seven hills of Ancient Rome. There, he studied mathematics and physics; and so brilliant was his progress in these sciences that in 1740 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the college.

He was especially appropriate for this post due to his acquaintance with recent advances in science, and his skill in a classical severity of demonstration, acquired by a thorough study of the works of the Greek geometers. Several years before this appointment he had made a name for himself with an elegant solution of the problem of finding the Sun's equator and determining the period of its rotation by observation of the spots on its surface.

Middle years

Notwithstanding the arduous duties of his professorship, he found time for investigation in all the fields of physical science, and he published a very large number of dissertations, some of them of considerable length. Among the subjects were the transit of Mercury, the Aurora Borealis (corona), the figure of the Earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry.

In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the Pope Benedict XIV, as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St. Peter's, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered. His suggestion of placing five concentric iron bands was adopted.

One of Boscovich's numerous publications

Boscovich visited his hometown only once in 1747. After that, he never went to visit the place where he was born and grew up.

He agreed to take part in the Portuguese expedition for the survey Brazil and the measurement of a degree of the meridian, but was persuaded by the Pope to stay in Italy and to undertake a similar task there with Christopher Maire, an English Jesuit who measured an arc of two degrees between Rome and Rimini. The operation began at the end of 1750, and was completed in about two years. An account was published in 1755, under the name De Litteraria expeditione per pontificiam ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridiani gradus a PP. Maire et Boscovicli. The value of this work was increased by a carefully prepared map of the States of the Church. A French translation appeared in 1770.

A dispute arose between the grand duke of Tuscany and the republic of Lucca with respect to the drainage of a lake. As agent of Lucca, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, to Vienna and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement in the matter.

In Vienna in 1758, he published his famous work, Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in natura existentium (Theory of Natural philosophy derived to the single Law of forces, which exist in Nature), containing his atomic theory and his theory of forces. A second edition was published in 1763 in Venice, a third in 1922 in London, and a fourth in 1966 in the United States. A fifth edition was published in Zagreb in 1974.

Another occasion to exercise his diplomatic ability soon arose. The British government suspected that warships had been outfitted in the port of Dubrovnik for the service of France and that therefore the neutrality of Dubrovnik had been violated. Boscovich was selected to undertake an ambassadorship to London (1760), to vindicate the character of his native place and satisfy the government. This mission he discharged successfully — a credit to him and a delight to his countrymen. During his stay in England he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1761 astronomers were preparing to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun. Under the influence of the Royal Society Boscovich decided to travel to Istanbul. He arrived late and then travelled to Poland via Bulgaria and Moldavia then proceeding to Saint Petersburg where he was elected as a member of Russian Academy of Sciences. Ill health compelled him soon to return to Italy.

Late years

In 1764 he was called to serve as the chair of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and he held this post with the directorship of the observatory of Brera in Milan, for six years.

He was invited by the Royal Society of London to undertake an expedition to California to observe the transit of Venus in 1769 again, but this was prevented by the recent decree of the Spanish government on the expulsion of the Jesuits from its dominions. Boscovich had many enemies and he was driven to frequent changes of residence. About 1777 he returned to Milan, where he kept teaching and directing the Brera observatory.

Deprived of his post by the intrigues of his associates, he was about to retire to Ragusa when in 1773 the news of the suppression of his order in Italy reached him. Uncertainty led him to accept an invitation from the King of France to come to Paris where he was appointed director of optics for the navy, with a pension of 8000 livres and a position was created for him.

He naturalized in France and stayed ten years, but his position became irksome, and at length intolerable. He, however, continued to work in the pursuit of science knowledge, and published many remarkable works. Among them was an elegant solution of the problem to determine the orbit of a comet from three observations and works on micrometer and achromatic telescopes.

In 1783 he returned to Italy, and spent two years at Bassano, occupying himself with the publication of his Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam, etc., published in 1785 in five volumes quarto.

After a visit of some months to the convent of Vallombrosa, he went to Brera in 1786 and resumed his literary labors. At that time his health was failing, his reputation was on the wane, his works did not sell, and he gradually fell prey to illness and disappointment. He died in Milan and was buried in the church of St. Maria Podone.

Further works

File:Croatian dinar 100a.jpg

Boskovic at Croatian dinar, Croatian banknote from early 1990s

In addition to the works already mentioned Boscovich published Elementa universae matheseos (1754), the substance of the course of study prepared for his pupils, and a narrative of his travels entitled Giornale di un viaggio da Constantinopoli in Polonia (A diary of the journey from Constantinople to Poland) (1762), of which several editions and a French translation appeared.

Nationality controversy

The modern concept of nationality, based on ethnic concepts as language, religion, custom, etc., was developed only in the 19th century. For this reason the attribution of a definite nationality to personalities of the previous centuries, living in ethnically mixed regions, is often disputed. As a consequence the Boscovich's legacy is claimed by several states, in the present case Croatia, Italy, and Serbia. The claimings are often supported with the quotation of some selected lines or some special episodes: the results are quite contradictory, showing him as "real" Croat or "real" Italian, according to the different citation used.

Also the nationality of the father Nikola is disputed, and he is classified as Croat, Dalmatian and Orthodox Slav..

Names in different languages

Croatian: Ruđer Josip Bošković
English: Roger Joseph Boscovich
French: Roger Joseph Boscovich
Italian: Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich
Latin: Rogerius Josephus Boscovich
Spanish: Rogelio José Boscovich
Serbian: Руђер Јосип Бошковић / Ruđer Josip Bošković

Bibliography

Boscovich published eight scientific dissertations prior to his 1744 ordination as a priest and appointment as a professor and another 14 afterwards. The following is a partial list of his publications:

The Sunspots (1736)
The Transit of Mercury (1737)
The Aurora Borealis (1738)
The Application of the Telescope in Astronomical Studies (1738)
The Motion of the Heavenly Bodies in an Unresisting Medium (1740)
The Different Effects of Gravity in Various Points of the Earth (1741)
The Aberration of the Fixed Stars (1742)
On the Ancient Villa Discovered on the Ridge of Tusculum (1745)
On the ancient Sundial and Other Certain treasures found among the Ruins (1745)
The Theory of Natural Philosophy (1758)

References

'"Roger Joseph Boscovich'" SJ FRS, 1711 -1787 Studies of his life and work on the 250th anniversary of his birth, edited L L Whyte, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1961
"Roger Joseph Boscovich". Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth
"Roger Joseph Boscovich". Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth
ROGER JOSEPH BOSCOVICH 1711-1787 Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth
Mileti, Nick J. (2004) "Closet Italians", Xlibris Corporation, p.90
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Vitae Italorum, of Angelo Fabronio, (Academiae Pisanae curatore (Pisa, 1789), XIV)
L L Whyte ((ed.), Roger Joseph Boscovich (Fordham Press, London, 1961))

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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