- Roger Joseph Boscovich
Infobox_Scientist
caption=Portrait byRobert Edge Pine , London, 1760.
dead=dead
birth_date=birth date|1711|5|18
birth_place =Dubrovnik ,Republic of Ragusa
death_date=death date|1787|2|13
death_place =Milan ,Duchy of Milan
residence =Milan
field =Physics ,Astronomy ,Mathematics
work_institutions =Brera Observatory ,University of Pavia
alma_mater =Pontifical Gregorian University
field =Astronomy ,Physics ,Mathematics ,Natural philosophy
known_for = precursor of theAtomic theory , founder ofBrera Observatory
footnotes =Roger Joseph Boscovich (see names in other languages;
May 18 ,1711 –February 13 ,1787 ) was aphysicist ,astronomer ,mathematician ,philosopher ,diplomat ,poet , and Jesuit from Ragusa (todayDubrovnik , inCroatia ) who lived for a time inFrance ,England and some Italian states [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=PMvcEPyNMGgC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=roger+boscovich&source=web&ots=Scav-J9miA&sig=bQvCpHfaO-S8rtdggWBfMAJf864&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result Remarkable Physicists by Ioan Mackenzie James] ] .He is famous for his
atomic theory , given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics. This work inspiredMichael Faraday to develop field theory for electromagnetic interaction, and was even a basis forAlbert Einstein 's attempts for aunified field theory , according to Einstein's coworkerLancelot Law Whyte [ [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6m6YRL454iQJ:dpedtech.com/ROGERJOSEPHBOSCOVICH.doc+ '"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] ] . Also according to John D. Barrow, Professor at Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society: Boscovich was the first to envisage,seek, and propose a mathematical theory of all the forces of Nature; the first scientific theory of everything. [ [New theories of everything, John D. Barrow, Oxford University Press, UK 2007 p.21] ] Boscovich also gave many important contributions toastronomy , including the first geometric procedure for determining theequator of a rotatingplanet from threeobservation s of a surface feature and for computing theorbit of a planet from three observations of its position. In 1753 he also discovered the absence of atmosphere on theMoon . [cite book | last = | first =| authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Энциклопедия для детей (астрономия)| publisher =Аванта+ | date= 1998| location = Москва| pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 5-89501-016-4]A crater on the Moon also bears his name: Boscovich crater.
Biography
Early years
Bošković was born on May, 18, 1711 in
Dubrovnik , he was baptized May, 26, 1711, by Marinus Carolis, "curatus et sacristia"; the name may have been given to him because both his great-grandfather Agostini and his mother`s brother were called Ruggiero, the godparent was his uncle Ruggiero Bettera. He was the seventh child ofNikola Bošković , a merchant born in 1642, at Orahov Do nearTrebinje inHerzegovina [ [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6m6YRL454iQJ:dpedtech.com/ROGERJOSEPHBOSCOVICH.doc+ '"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] ] . He knew his father only as a bedridden invalid with paralysed legs and who died when Roger (Rudjer) was a child of 10, was rich in trading experience and knowledge of that part of the Ottoman Empire.Bošković's mother, Paola Bettera (*1674 +1777) was a member of a cultivated Italian merchant family established in Ragusa since the early seventeenth century, to where her ancestor, Pietro Bettera, had come from
Bergamo in northern Italy. She was a robust and active woman with a happy temperament who lived to 103. She left nothing in writing, but Bošković's aunt, her sister, wrote poetry in Italian. Their sons, Roger’s cousins and playmates, Antun Bošković and Franjo Bošković, grew up into good Latinists. His own brothers and sisters were all older than himself, except his sister Anica Bošković (*1714 + 1804), two years his junior. His eldest sister Mare Bošković, nineteen years his senior, was the only member of the family to marry; his second sister Marija Bošković became a nun in the Dubrovnik Convent of St Catherine’s. His eldest brother Božo Bošković (Boško), thirteen years older, joined the service of the Dubrovnik Republic. His brother Bartolomeo Bošković (Baro), born in 1700 and educated at the Jesuit school in Dubrovnik, left home when Roger was 3 to become a scholar and a Jesuit priest in Rome. He too wrote good verse in both Latin and ‘"Illyrian"’, but eventually burnt some of his manuscripts out of a scrupulous modesty. His brother Ivan Bošković became a Dominican in a sixteenth-century monastery in Dubrovnik, whose church Roger knew as a child with its rich treasures and paintings by Titian and Vasari, still there today. His brother Pero Bošković, six years his senior, became a poet like his grandfather. He, too, was schooled by the Jesuits, then served as an official of the Republic and made his reputation as a translator of Ovid, Corneille’s Cid and of Molière. A volume of his religious verse, Hvale Duhovne, was published in Venice in 1729.At the age of 8 or 9, after acquiring the rudiments of reading and writing from the priest Nicola Nicchei of the
Church of St. Nicholas , Roger was sent for schooling to the localJesuit Collegium Regusinum. During his early studies Roger Bošković showed a distinct propensity for further intellectual development. He gained a reputation at school for having an easy memory and a quick, deep mind.On
September 16 ,1725 , Roger Bošković left Ragusa for Rome. He was in the care of two Jesuit priests who took him to theSociety of Jesus , famous for its education of youth and at that time having some 800 establishments and 200,000 pupils under its care throughout the world. We learn nothing from Boscovich himself until the time he entered the novitiate in 1731, but it was the usual practice for novices to spend the first two years not in theCollegium Romanum , but in S. Andrea delle Fratte on theQuirinal , the highest of the seven hills of Ancient Rome. There, he studiedmathematics andphysics ; and so brilliant was his progress in thesescience s that in 1740 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the college. [ [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6m6YRL454iQJ:dpedtech.com/ROGERJOSEPHBOSCOVICH.doc+ "Roger Joseph Boscovich". Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth] ]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 , theAurora Borealis (corona ), the figure of theEarth , the observation of the fixedstar s, the inequalities in terrestrialgravitation , the application ofmathematics to the theory of thetelescope , the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, thecycloid , the logistic curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the law of continuity, the doublerefraction micrometer , various problems ofspherical 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.. ]In 1745 Boscovich published "De Viribus Vivis" in which he tried to find a middle way between
Isaac Newton 's gravitational theory andGottfried Leibniz 's metaphysical theory ofmonad -points. Developing a concept of "impenetrability" as a property of hard bodies which explained their behaviour in terms offorce rather thanmatter . Stripping atoms of their matter, impenetrability is disassociated from hardness and then put in an arbitrary relationship to elasticity. Impenetrability has a Cartesian sense that more than one point cannot occupy the same location at once. ["The Conflict between Atomism and Conservation Theory 1644 - 1860" by Wilson L. Scott, London and New York, 1970]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 themeridian , but was persuaded by thePope to stay inItaly and to undertake a similar task there withChristopher Maire , an English Jesuit who measured an arc of two degrees between Rome andRimini . The operation began at the end of 1750, and was completed in about twoyear s. 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 Francis the Grand Duke of
Tuscany and the republic ofLucca with respect to the drainage of a lake. As agent of Lucca, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, toVienna and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement in the matter.In
Venice in 1758, he published the first edition of 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 hisatomic theory and his theory offorce s [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=HaKlJ5Zm51gC&pg=PA49&dq=roger+boscovich&lr=&sig=ACfU3U2KCg1QS4N5hw05fph6i_4SZHiEdA Cohesion by John Shipley Rowlinson] ] . A second edition was published in 1763 inVenice , a third in 1922 inLondon , and a fourth in 1966 in theUnited States . A fifth edition was published inZagreb in 1974.Another occasion to exercise his diplomatic ability soon arose. The British government suspected that warships had been outfitted in the port of Ragusa for the service of
France and that therefore the neutrality of theRepublic of Ragusa 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 inEngland he was elected a fellow of theRoyal 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 toIstanbul . He arrived late and then travelled to Poland viaBulgaria andMoldavia then proceeding toSaint Petersburg where he was elected as a member ofRussian Academy of Science s. Ill health compelled him soon to return toItaly .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 theobservatory ofBrera inMilan , for six years.He was invited by the
Royal Society of London to undertake an expedition toCalifornia to observe thetransit of Venus in 1769 again, but this was prevented by the recent decree of the Spanish government on the expulsion of the Jesuits from itsdominions . 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 toParis where he was appointed director ofoptics for the navy, with a pension of 8000 "livre s" 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 acomet 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
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.Competing claims for Boscovich's legacy
The modern concept of nationality, based on
ethnic concepts as language, culture, 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 indeterminable; Boscovich's legacy is consequently celebrated by several states:Croatia ,Italy , andSerbia (formerly by theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia ). [ [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6m6YRL454iQJ:dpedtech.com/ROGERJOSEPHBOSCOVICH.doc+ "Roger Joseph Boscovich". Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth] ] .Croatian sources claim that
Orahov Do , where Nikola Bošković came from, has always been inhabited by catholicCroats fact|date=May 2008. Some episodes are reported to affirm he referred to his Croatian identity. [Dadić, Žarko. "Ruđer Bošković" (Parallel text in Croatian and English). Zagreb: Školska Knjiga, 1987] In writings to his sister Anica (Anna), he told her he had not forgotten the Croatian language. [Dadić, Žarko. "Ruđer Bošković" (Parallel text in Croatian and English). Zagreb: Školska Knjiga, 1987] When he was in Vienna in 1757 [ Harris, Robin. "Dubrovnik, A History". London: Saqi Books, 2003. ISBN 0 86356 332 5 ] , he spotted Croatian soldiers going to the battlefields of theSeven Year's War , he immediately rode out to see them, wishing them 'Godspeed' in Croatian. [Harris, Robin. "Dubrovnik, A History". London: Saqi Books, 2003. ISBN 0 86356 332 5] In one of his letters to his sister he wrote that in one of European cities he saw soldiers - "our Croats". [ [http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/et111.html#rudder] Dubrovnik] The largest Croatian institute of natural sciences and technology, based inZagreb bears his name. His picture was onCroatian dinar banknotes valid from 1991 until 1994, when the dinar was replaced by theCroatian kuna .Serbs claim that his family origin from MontenegroSlobodan Šćepanović, О поријеклу породице и коријенима предака Руђера Бошковића, Историјски записи 3/1995, Podgorica 1995] and claim that his father abandoned his Orthodox religion, according to some primary sources, prior to marriage.Fact|date=November 2007 The
Astronomical Society Ruđer Bošković based in the Serbia's capitalBelgrade bears his name.In Italy Boscovich is remembered as Italian (although he is not as well known as other, more famous, scientists of his time such as
Alessandro Volta ,Luigi Galvani and others). He was born in a city of mixed language and culture (Italic and Croat), strongly influenced by theItalian Culture and whereupper class es had an Italic/Latin (Romanic Dalmatian) identity. His mother's family was from Italy, and he was also largely Italian both by culture and career; he moved to Italy at the age of 14 where he spent the greater part of his life. In several sources and encyclopedias he is described as an "Italian scientist".He used Italian for his correspondence and private matters andVoltaire always wrote to Boscovich in Italian as "a sign of respect". Furthermore, Boscovich always said that Italy was "his real and sweet mother". [ [http://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/biografie/bio_dal/boscovich_ruggero_giuseppe.htm Biography of Boscovich (in Italian)] ] However Boscovich himself also denied being Italian: when it was suggested he was an Italian mathematician, he responded in a note to his "Voyage astronomique et geographique" that "our author is a Dalmatian from Ragusa, and not an Italian. Even so, one time, while living in Paris and attending to a military parade where he saw a Croatian unit from Ragusa, his words were: "there are, my brave Croats". [Harris, Robin. "Dubrovnik, A History". London: Saqi Books, 2003. ISBN 0 86356 332 5. Dadić, Žarko. "Ruđer Bošković" Zagreb, 1990]Names in other languages
*
*
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*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)
*"De Viribus Vivis" (1745)
*"On the ancient Sundial and Other Certain treasures found among the Ruins" (1745)
*"The Theory of Natural Philosophy" (1758)ee also
*
Nikola Bošković
*House of Boshko
*Republic of Ragusa
*List of notable Ragusans
*Dubrovnik
*Dalmatia
*History of Dalmatia
*Ruđer Bošković Institute
*Polymath References
*
External links
* [http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:6m6YRL454iQJ:dpedtech.com/ROGERJOSEPHBOSCOVICH.doc+ ROGER JOSEPH BOSCOVICH S.J., F.R.S., 1711-1787 Studies in His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth Edited by LANCELOT LAW WHYTE London 1961]
* [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Roger_Joseph_Boscovich Roger Boscovich on Britannica 1911]
* [http://www.hr/darko/etf/et111.html#rudder Information on Boscovich's scientific legacy and ethnic affiliation]
* [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Boscovich.html Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, by University of St. Andrews]
* [http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/boscovich.htm Roger Joseph Boscovich, by Joseph MacDonnell]
* [http://www.norskfysikk.no/nfs/epsbiografer/BOSCOV~1.PDF Rudjer Boscovich, by Norway's Physical Society] (in PDF)
* [http://www.dalmatia.it/dalmazia/personaggi/ruggeroen.htm Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, by Antonio Fares]
* [http://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/bio_dal/boscovich_ruggero_giuseppe.htm Giuseppe Boscovich, by Antonio Fares] (From Arcipelago Adriatico, in Italian)
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02691a.htm Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich in the Catholic Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.hic.hr/books/latinists/01latin.htm Latin as a literary language among the Croats by Branko Franolić - contains information on Ruđer Bošković]
* [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbourj/money2.htm Ruggiero Boscovich on various Croatian Dinar banknotes.]
* [http://www.novazora.org.yu/Nova%20Zora%20Files/milosevicLat.htm On the Serb Origin of Roger Boskovic]
* [http://www.brera.inaf.it/boscovich/progetto-sito/index.htm Edizione Nazionale delle Opere di Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich (Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze - Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti - INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera - Pontificia Università Gregoriana)]Further reading
*Dadić, Žarko. "Ruđer Bošković" (Parallel text in Croatian and English). Zagreb: Školska Knjiga, 1987
*Franolić, Branko. "Bošković in Britain", Journal of Croatian Studies Vol. 43, 2002 Croatian Academy of America, New York US ISSN 0075-4218
*Whyte, Lancelot Law, ed. "Roger Joseph Boscovich, S.J., F.R.S., 1711-1787: Studies of His Life and Work on the 250th Anniversary of His Birth." London,: G. Allen & Unwin, 1961.
*Williams, L. Pearce. "Michael Faraday, a Biography." New York,: Basic Books, 1965.
*Williams, L. Pearce. "Boscovich, Mako, Davy and Faraday." In R.J. Boscovich; Vita E Attivita Scientifica; His Life and Scientific Work, ed. Piers Bursill-Hall, 587-600. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1993.
*Boscovich, Ruggero Giuseppe. "A Theory of Natural Philosophy. Translated by J. M. Child". English ed. Cambridge, Mass.,: M. I. T. Press, 1966.
*Brush, Stephen G. "The Kind of Motion We Call Heat : A History of the Kinetic Theory of Gases in the 19th Century". Vol. 6 Studies in Statistical Mechanics. New York: North-Holland Pub. Co., 1976.
*Brush, Stephen G. "Statistical Physics and the Atomic Theory of Matter : From Boyle and Newton to Landau and Onsager" Princeton Series in Physics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.
*Bursill-Hall, Piers, ed. "R.J. Boscovich; Vita E Attivita Scientifica; His Life and Scientific Work." Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1993.
*Feingold, Mordechai. "A Jesuit among Protestants: Boscovich in England C. 1745-1820." In R.J. Boscovich; "Vita E Attivita Scientifica; His Life and Scientific Work", ed. Piers Bursill-Hall, 511-526. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1993.
*Kargon, Robert. "William Rowan Hamilton, Michael Faraday, and the Revival of Boscovichean Atomism." American Journal of Physics 32, no. 10 (1964): 792-795.
*Kargon, Robert. "William Rowan Hamilton and Boscovichean Atomism." Journal of the History of Ideas 26, no. 1 (1965): 137-140.
*Katritsky, Linde. "Coleridge's Links with Leading Men of Science." Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 49, no. 2 (1995): 261-276.
*Priestley, Joseph, and Robert E. Schofield. "A Scientific Autobiography of Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804"; Selected Scientific Correspondence. Cambridge,: M.I.T. Press, 1966.
*Justin, Rodriguez. "Scientific Revolution Atomic Projects." Stevens Journal of Oral Traditions, no. 1 (200?): xlv-xc.
*Scott, Wilson L. "The Significance Of "Hard Bodies" In the History of Scientific Thought." Isis 50, no. 3 (1959): 199-210.
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