Roger Joseph Boscovich
Encyclopedia
Ruđer Josip Bošković (see names in other languages; 18 May 1711 – 13 February 1787) was a theologian, physicist
, astronomer
, mathematician
, philosopher, diplomat
, poet
, Jesuit
, and a polymath
from the city of Dubrovnik
in the Republic of Ragusa
(today part of the Republic of Croatia), who studied and lived in Italy
and France
where he also published many of his works.
He is famous for his atomic theory
and made many important contributions to astronomy
, including the first geometric procedure for determining the equator
of a rotating planet
from three observation
s of a surface feature and for computing the orbit
of a planet from three observations of its position. In 1753 he also discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon
.
in the Republic of Ragusa
(also known as the Republic of Dubrovnik, "Ragusa" being the Latin name for Dubrovnik
) to Ragusian parents of whom his father Nikola Bošković
, was of Croatian descent, and his mother Paola Bettera of Italian descent. He was baptized on 26 May 1711 by Marinus Carolis, curatus et sacristia; the name may have been given to him because both his great-grandfather Agostino Bettera and his mother's brother were called Ruggiero, the godparent was his uncle Ruggiero Bettera. He was the seventh child of Nikola and Paola and the second youngest. His father was a merchant born in 1642, at Orahov Do
near Ravno
in what was then the Ottoman Empire
and is now Bosnia and Herzegovina
. He knew his father only as a bedridden invalid with paralyzed legs and who died when Ruđer 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), nicknamed "Pavica", was a member of a cultivated Italian merchant family established in Dubrovnik 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, Ruđer'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 Ragusa Convent of St Catherine’s. His eldest brother Božo Bošković (Boško), thirteen years older, joined the service of the Ragusa Republic. His brother Bartolomej (Baro) Bošković, born in 1700 and educated at the Jesuit school in Dubrovnik, left home when Ruđer was 3 to become a scholar and a Jesuit priest in Rome. He too wrote good verse in both Latin and "Illyrian" (early Croatian language
), but eventually burnt some of his manuscripts out of a scrupulous modesty. His brother Ivan (Đivo) Bošković became a Dominican in a sixteenth-century monastery in Dubrovnik, whose church Ruđer knew as a child with its rich treasures and paintings by Titian and Vasari, still there today. His brother Petar (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, Ruđer was sent for schooling to the local Jesuit Collegium Regusinum. During his early studies Ruđer 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 16 September 1725, Ruđer Bošković left Dubrovnik for 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 care throughout the world. We learn nothing from Bošković 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 the Collegium Romanum, but in Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
. There, he studied mathematics
and physics
; and so brilliant was his progress in these science
s 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.
, 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 comet
s, the tide
s, the law of continuity
, the double refraction micrometer
, and various problems of spherical trigonometry
.
In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by 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 Bošković published De Viribus Vivis in which he tried to find a middle way between Isaac Newton
's gravitational theory and Gottfried Leibniz
's metaphysical theory
of monad
-points. He developed a concept of "impenetrability" as a property of hard bodies which explained their behavior in terms of force
rather than matter
. 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. Bošković visited his hometown only once in 1747, never to return.
He agreed to take part in the Portuguese
expedition for the survey Brazil
and the measurement of a degree of arc 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 which incorporated, as an appendix, some material first published in 1760 outlining an objective procedure for determining suitable values for the parameters of the fitted model from a greater number of observations. An unconstrained variant of this fitting procedure is now known as the L1-norm or Least absolute deviations
procedure and serves as a robust alternative to the familiar L2-norm or Least Squares procedure.
A dispute arose between Francis
the Grand Duke of Tuscany
and the republic of Lucca
with respect to the drainage of a lake. As agent of Lucca, Bošković was sent, in 1757, to Vienna
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 his atomic theory
and his theory of force
s. 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 the Republic of Ragusa
had been violated. Bošković 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 Bošković decided to travel to Istanbul
. He arrived late and then traveled 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
.
, 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 expelling Jesuits from its dominions. Bošković 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 Dubrovnik 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 8,000 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 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 work. 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.
He also published accounts of his travels from Constantinople
to Poland
which was published in several expanded editions and translated into French .
Bošković applied himself to practical engineering projects, including several discussions of architectural repair or stability, including repairs to St Peter's Dome , the stability of the Duomo of Milan , repairs to the library of Cesarea di Vienna and a report on the damage to sectors of Rome in June of 1749 due by a whirlwind .
Bošković also was consulted on civil works concerning ports and rivers: Ivica Martinovic has shown the extent to which Bošković applied himself to such works, and lists 13 major works:
Martinovic's paper includes an extensive annotated bibliography on such works.
, given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics
inspired Michael Faraday
to develop field
theory for electromagnetic interaction
. Other nineteenth century physicists, such as William Rowan Hamilton
, Lord Kelvin, and the elasticity theorist Saint Venant
stressed the theoretical advantages of the Boškovićian atom over rigid atoms. Some even claim that Boškovićian atomism was a basis for Albert Einstein
's attempts for a unified field theory
and that he was the first to envisage, seek, and propose a mathematical theory of all the forces of Nature; the first scientific theory of everything
.
The scientist Nikola Tesla
, a critic of Einstein, claimed in an unpublished interview that Einstein's theory of Relativity was the creation of Bošković:
For his contributions to astronomy, the lunar crater Boscovich
was named after him.
The largest Croatian institute of natural sciences and technology, based in Zagreb
is called "Ruđer Bošković Institute". The oldest astronomical society in the Balkans based in Serbia's capital Belgrade
is called Astronomical Society Ruđer Bošković
.
, 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; Bošković's legacy is consequently celebrated by several states: Croatia
, Italy
and Serbia
.
Croatian sources stress that he referred to his Croatian identity. In writings to his sister Anica (Anna), he told her he had not forgotten the Croatian language. When he was in Vienna in 1757, he spotted Croatian soldiers going to the battlefields of the Seven Years' War
and immediately rode out to see them, wishing them 'Godspeed' in Croatian. 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".
Italians claim that Boscovich was remembered as an Italian. According to Italians, he was born in city with mixed cultures - Croatian and Italian, and higher society of (also Bošković) Dubrovnik was under Italian influence (Roman-Dalmatinian influence). His mother's family came from Italy, and he was under Italian influence in life and career; He moved to Italy at his 14, where he spent most of his life. In some encyclopedias he is described as an Italian scientist. He used Italian language in private purposes, and Voltaire
wrote to Bošković in Italian "as a sign of respect". But, Bošković denied that he was Italian. When d'Alembert in one edition of Voyage astronomique et geographique called him Italian, Bošković said that he was Dalmatian from Dubrovnik, and not Italian.
Serbs claim that his family origins were in Montenegro
which would actually make him a Montenegrin, although significant part of Montenegrins declare themselves as Serbs. This theory dates back to 1922 when Serbian philosopher Branislav Petronijević declared Bošković's grandfather a Serb from village Orakovo. The village Orakovo doesn't exist, he probably meant Orahov Do
that is purely Croatian
. That theory, therefore, does not have clear foundations.
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, philosopher, diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
, and a polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
from the city of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
in the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
(today part of the Republic of Croatia), who studied and lived in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he also published many of his works.
He is famous for his atomic theory
Atomic theory
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
and made many important contributions to astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, including the first geometric procedure for determining the equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
of a rotating planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
from three observation
Observation
Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity...
s of a surface feature and for computing the orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
of a planet from three observations of its position. In 1753 he also discovered the absence of atmosphere on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
.
Early years
Bošković was born in DubrovnikDubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
in the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
(also known as the Republic of Dubrovnik, "Ragusa" being the Latin name for Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
) to Ragusian parents of whom his father Nikola Bošković
Nikola Boškovic
Nikola Bošković was a trader for the Republic of Ragusa as a in the service of Rad Getaldić, who then dispatched him to Novi Pazar in Sandžak, Ottoman Empire to learn from the local traders. Bošković returned to Ragusa as a very wealthy man.He was born in Orahov Do, near Popovo polje, present-day...
, was of Croatian descent, and his mother Paola Bettera of Italian descent. He was baptized on 26 May 1711 by Marinus Carolis, curatus et sacristia; the name may have been given to him because both his great-grandfather Agostino Bettera and his mother's brother were called Ruggiero, the godparent was his uncle Ruggiero Bettera. He was the seventh child of Nikola and Paola and the second youngest. His father was a merchant born in 1642, at Orahov Do
Orahov Do
Orahov Do is a village in Ravno municipality Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is only a few kilometers away from the border with Croatia on the road from the Adriatic coast to Popovo polje. Village is inhabited by Catholic Croats. In 1991...
near Ravno
Ravno
Ravno is a town and the seat of its municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity. Ravno was a municipality until 1963, when it became a part of the Trebinje municipality...
in what was then the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and is now Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. He knew his father only as a bedridden invalid with paralyzed legs and who died when Ruđer 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), nicknamed "Pavica", was a member of a cultivated Italian merchant family established in Dubrovnik since the early seventeenth century, to where her ancestor, Pietro Bettera, had come from Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. 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, Ruđer'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 Ragusa Convent of St Catherine’s. His eldest brother Božo Bošković (Boško), thirteen years older, joined the service of the Ragusa Republic. His brother Bartolomej (Baro) Bošković, born in 1700 and educated at the Jesuit school in Dubrovnik, left home when Ruđer was 3 to become a scholar and a Jesuit priest in Rome. He too wrote good verse in both Latin and "Illyrian" (early Croatian language
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
), but eventually burnt some of his manuscripts out of a scrupulous modesty. His brother Ivan (Đivo) Bošković became a Dominican in a sixteenth-century monastery in Dubrovnik, whose church Ruđer knew as a child with its rich treasures and paintings by Titian and Vasari, still there today. His brother Petar (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, Ruđer was sent for schooling to the local Jesuit Collegium Regusinum. During his early studies Ruđer 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 16 September 1725, Ruđer Bošković left Dubrovnik for Rome. He was in the care of two Jesuit priests who took him to the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
, 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 Bošković 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 the Collegium Romanum, but in Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Sant'Andrea delle Fratte is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis is Ennio Antonelli....
. There, he studied mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
; and so brilliant was his progress in these science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
s 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
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
'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 MercuryTransit of Mercury
A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury comes between the Sun and the Earth, and Mercury is seen as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun....
, the Aurora Borealis (corona
Corona
A corona is a type of plasma "atmosphere" of the Sun or other celestial body, extending millions of kilometers into space, most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but also observable in a coronagraph...
), the figure of the Earth
Figure of the Earth
The expression figure of the Earth has various meanings in geodesy according to the way it is used and the precision with which the Earth's size and shape is to be defined. The actual topographic surface is most apparent with its variety of land forms and water areas. This is, in fact, the surface...
, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation
Gravitation
Gravitation, or gravity, is a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. Gravitation is most familiar as the agent that gives weight to objects with mass and causes them to fall to the ground when dropped...
, the application of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
to the theory of the telescope
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the cycloid
Cycloid
A cycloid is the curve traced by a point on the rim of a circular wheel as the wheel rolls along a straight line.It is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve....
, the logistic curve, the theory of comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s, the tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
s, the law of continuity
Continuous function
In mathematics, a continuous function is a function for which, intuitively, "small" changes in the input result in "small" changes in the output. Otherwise, a function is said to be "discontinuous". A continuous function with a continuous inverse function is called "bicontinuous".Continuity of...
, the double refraction micrometer
Micrometer
A micrometer , sometimes known as a micrometer screw gauge, is a device incorporating a calibrated screw used widely for precise measurement of small distances in mechanical engineering and machining as well as most mechanical trades, along with other metrological instruments such as dial, vernier,...
, and various problems of spherical trigonometry
Spherical trigonometry
Spherical trigonometry is a branch of spherical geometry which deals with polygons on the sphere and the relationships between the sides and the angles...
.
In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by Pope Benedict XIV
Pope Benedict XIV
Pope Benedict XIV , born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was Pope from 17 August 1740 to 3 May 1758.-Life:...
, as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St. Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, in which a crack had been discovered. His suggestion of placing five concentric iron bands was adopted.
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
's gravitational theory and Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
's metaphysical theory
Monadology
The Monadology is one of Gottfried Leibniz’s best known works representing his later philosophy. It is a short text which sketches in some 90 paragraphs a metaphysics of simple substances, or monads.- Text :...
of monad
Monad (Greek philosophy)
Monad , according to the Pythagoreans, was a term for Divinity or the first being, or the totality of all beings, Monad being the source or the One meaning without division....
-points. He developed a concept of "impenetrability" as a property of hard bodies which explained their behavior in terms of force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
rather than matter
Matter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
. Stripping atoms of their matter, impenetrability is disassociated from hardness and then put in an arbitrary relationship to elasticity
Elasticity (physics)
In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material that returns to its original shape after the stress that made it deform or distort is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain....
. Impenetrability has a Cartesian sense that more than one point cannot occupy the same location at once. Bošković visited his hometown only once in 1747, never to return.
He agreed to take part in the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
expedition for the survey Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the measurement of a degree of arc of the meridian, but was persuaded by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
to stay in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and to undertake a similar task there with Christopher Maire, an English Jesuit who measured an arc of two degrees between Rome and Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
. 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
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
. A French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translation appeared in 1770 which incorporated, as an appendix, some material first published in 1760 outlining an objective procedure for determining suitable values for the parameters of the fitted model from a greater number of observations. An unconstrained variant of this fitting procedure is now known as the L1-norm or Least absolute deviations
Least absolute deviations
Least absolute deviations , also known as Least Absolute Errors , Least Absolute Value , or the L1 norm problem, is a mathematical optimization technique similar to the popular least squares technique that attempts to find a function which closely approximates a set of data...
procedure and serves as a robust alternative to the familiar L2-norm or Least Squares procedure.
A dispute arose between Francis
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...
the Grand Duke of Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
and the republic of Lucca
Lucca
Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
with respect to the drainage of a lake. As agent of Lucca, Bošković was sent, in 1757, to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement in the matter.
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
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 his atomic theory
Atomic theory
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
and his theory of force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
s. A second edition was published in 1763 in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, a third in 1922 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and a fourth in 1966 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A fifth edition was published in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
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
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and that therefore the neutrality of the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
had been violated. Bošković 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
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
.
In 1761 astronomers were preparing to observe the transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
across the Sun. Under the influence of the Royal Society Bošković decided to travel to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. He arrived late and then traveled to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
via Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
then proceeding to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
where he was elected as a member of Russian Academy of Sciences. Ill health compelled him soon to return to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Late years
In 1764 he was called to serve as the chair of mathematics at the University of PaviaUniversity of Pavia
The University of Pavia is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 1361 and is organized in 9 Faculties.-History:...
, and he held this post with the directorship of the observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
of Brera
Brera
Brera is a district of Milan, ItalyBrera may also refer to:* the Palazzo Brera, a historical building in Brera; the palace also houses:** the Brera Art Academy** the Brera Art Gallery** the Brera Astronomical Observatory...
in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, for six years.
He was invited by the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
of London to undertake an expedition to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to observe the transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
in 1769 again, but this was prevented by the recent decree of the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
government expelling Jesuits from its dominions. Bošković 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 Dubrovnik 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
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to come to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he was appointed director of optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
for the navy, with a pension of 8,000 livre
Livré
Livré-la-Touche is a commune in the Mayenne department in north-western France. Prior to October 6, 2008, it was known as Livré....
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
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
of a comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
from three observations and works on micrometer and achromatic
Achromatic lens
An achromatic lens or achromat is a lens that is designed to limit the effects of chromatic and spherical aberration. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths into focus in the same plane....
telescopes.
In 1783 he returned to Italy, and spent two years at Bassano
Bassano del Grappa
Bassano del Grappa is a city and comune in the province of Vicenza, region Veneto, in northern Italy. It bounds the communes of Cassola, Marostica, Solagna, Pove del Grappa, Romano d'Ezzelino, Campolongo sul Brenta, Conco, Rosà, Cartigliano and Nove...
, 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
Vallombrosa
Vallombrosa is a Benedictine abbey in the comune of Reggello , c. 30 km south-east of Florence, in the Apennines, surrounded by forests of beech and firs. It was founded by Giovanni Gualberto, a Florentine noble, in 1038 and became the mother house of the Vallumbrosan Order.It was extended...
, he went to Brera in 1786 and resumed his work. 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 Bošković published course material he had prepared for his pupils in mathematics .He also published accounts of his travels from Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
which was published in several expanded editions and translated into French .
Bošković applied himself to practical engineering projects, including several discussions of architectural repair or stability, including repairs to St Peter's Dome , the stability of the Duomo of Milan , repairs to the library of Cesarea di Vienna and a report on the damage to sectors of Rome in June of 1749 due by a whirlwind .
Bošković also was consulted on civil works concerning ports and rivers: Ivica Martinovic has shown the extent to which Bošković applied himself to such works, and lists 13 major works:
Martinovic's paper includes an extensive annotated bibliography on such works.
Legacy
His atomic theoryAtomic theory
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
, given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics
Classical mechanics
In physics, classical mechanics is one of the two major sub-fields of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces...
inspired Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
to develop field
Electromagnetic field
An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by moving electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction...
theory for electromagnetic interaction
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
. Other nineteenth century physicists, such as William Rowan Hamilton
William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton was an Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, who made important contributions to classical mechanics, optics, and algebra. His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover new mathematical concepts and techniques...
, Lord Kelvin, and the elasticity theorist Saint Venant
Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant
Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant was a mechanician and mathematician who contributed to early stress analysis and also developed the one-dimensional unsteady open channel flow shallow water equations or Saint-Venant equations that are a fundamental set of equations used in modern...
stressed the theoretical advantages of the Boškovićian atom over rigid atoms. Some even claim that Boškovićian atomism was a basis for Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's attempts for a unified field theory
Unified field theory
In physics, a unified field theory, occasionally referred to as a uniform field theory, is a type of field theory that allows all that is usually thought of as fundamental forces and elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory, and thus...
and that he was the first to envisage, seek, and propose a mathematical theory of all the forces of Nature; the first scientific theory of everything
Theory of everything
A theory of everything is a putative theory of theoretical physics that fully explains and links together all known physical phenomena, and predicts the outcome of any experiment that could be carried out in principle....
.
The scientist Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
, a critic of Einstein, claimed in an unpublished interview that Einstein's theory of Relativity was the creation of Bošković:
For his contributions to astronomy, the lunar crater Boscovich
Boscovich (crater)
Boscovich is a lunar crater that has been almost completely eroded away by subsequent impacts. It is located to the west-northwest of the crater Julius Caesar, and to the south-southeast of the prominent Manilius. The crater floor has a low albedo, and the dark hue makes it relatively easy to...
was named after him.
The largest Croatian institute of natural sciences and technology, based in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
is called "Ruđer Bošković Institute". The oldest astronomical society in the Balkans based in Serbia's capital Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
is called Astronomical Society Ruđer Bošković
Astronomical Society Ruđer Bošković
Astronomical Society Ruđer Bošković is an astronomical society in Belgrade, Serbia. Founded in 1934 by a group of students, it is the oldest one in the Balkans. Initially having only several members, today it gathers more than 700 astronomy lovers. It is named after Ruđer Bošković.The main role of...
.
Competing claims for Bošković's nationality
The modern concept of nationalityRomantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
, 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; Bošković's legacy is consequently celebrated by several states: Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
.
Croatian sources stress that he referred to his Croatian identity. In writings to his sister Anica (Anna), he told her he had not forgotten the Croatian language. When he was in Vienna in 1757, he spotted Croatian soldiers going to the battlefields of the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
and immediately rode out to see them, wishing them 'Godspeed' in Croatian. 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".
Italians claim that Boscovich was remembered as an Italian. According to Italians, he was born in city with mixed cultures - Croatian and Italian, and higher society of (also Bošković) Dubrovnik was under Italian influence (Roman-Dalmatinian influence). His mother's family came from Italy, and he was under Italian influence in life and career; He moved to Italy at his 14, where he spent most of his life. In some encyclopedias he is described as an Italian scientist. He used Italian language in private purposes, and Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
wrote to Bošković in Italian "as a sign of respect". But, Bošković denied that he was Italian. When d'Alembert in one edition of Voyage astronomique et geographique called him Italian, Bošković said that he was Dalmatian from Dubrovnik, and not Italian.
Serbs claim that his family origins were in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
which would actually make him a Montenegrin, although significant part of Montenegrins declare themselves as Serbs. This theory dates back to 1922 when Serbian philosopher Branislav Petronijević declared Bošković's grandfather a Serb from village Orakovo. The village Orakovo doesn't exist, he probably meant Orahov Do
Orahov Do
Orahov Do is a village in Ravno municipality Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is only a few kilometers away from the border with Croatia on the road from the Adriatic coast to Popovo polje. Village is inhabited by Catholic Croats. In 1991...
that is purely Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
. That theory, therefore, does not have clear foundations.
Names in other languages
Works
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:- De maculis solaribus (1736) (On Sunspots)
- De maculis solaribus exercitatio astronomica (1736) (An astronomical exercise on sunspots)
- De Mercurii novissimo infra Solem transitu (1737) (On the most recent transit of Mercury across the Sun)
- Trigonometriae sphaericae constructio (1737) (The construction of trigonometric spheres)
- De aurora boreali (1738) (On the Aurora Borealis)
- De novo telescopii usu ad objecta coelestia determinanda (1739) (On the new use of the telescope for determining celestial objects)
- De veterum argumentis pro telluris sphaericitate (1739) (On the arguments of the ancients for the sphericity of the earth)
- Dissertatio de telluris figura (1739) (A dissertation on the shape of the earth)
- De Circulis osculatoribus, Dissertatio (1740) (A dissertation on intersections of circles)
- De motu corporum projectorum in spatio non resistente (1741) (On the motion of unresisting projected bodies in space)
- De inaequalitate gravitatis in diversis terrae locis (1741) (On the inequality of gravity in diverse places on earth)
- De natura et usu infinitorum et infinite parvorum (1741) (On the nature and use of infinites and infinitessimals)
- De annusi fixarum aberrationibus (1742) (On the annual aberration fixed stars)
- De observationibus astronomicis et quo pertingat earundem certitudo (1742) ( On astronomical observations and the certitude which pertains to them)
- Disquisitio in universam astronomiam (1742) (A disquisition on universal astronomy)
- Parere di tre Matematici sopra i danni che si sono trovati nella Cupola di S. Pietro (1742) (On the opinion of three mathematicians concerning the damage to the dome of St Peter’s)
- De motu corporis attracti in centrum immobile viribus decrescentibus in ratione distantiarum reciproca duplicata in spatiis non resistentibus (1743) (On the motion of attracted body at an immobile centre by forces decreasing by the duplicate reciprocal proportion in non-resisting spaces)
- Riflessioni de' Padri Tommaso Le Seur, Francesco Jacquier de el' Ordine de' Minimi, e Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich della Compagnia di Gesù Sopra alcune difficoltà spettanti i danni, e Risarcimenti della Cupola Di S. Pietro (1743) (Reflections of Fathers Tommaso Le Seur, Francis Jacquier of the Order of Minimi, and Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich of the Society of Jesus on problems due to damage, and repair of, the dome of St. Peter’s) Link to full text
- Nova methodus adhibendi phasium observationes in eclipsibus lunaribus ad exercendam geometriam et promovendam astronomiam (1744) (A new method for using observations of phases in lunar eclipses for cultivating geometry and advancing astronomy)
- De cycloide et logistica (1745) (On the cycloid and the logicstic curve)
- De Viribus Vivis (1745) (On living forces)
- Trigonometria sphaerica (1745) (Spherical trigonometry)
- De cometis (1746) (On comets)
- Dissertatio de maris aestu (1747) ( A dissertation on the tides of the ocean)
- Dissertatio de lumine, 1-2 (1748/1749) ( A dissertation on light)
- De determinanda orbita planetae ope catoptricae ex datis vi celeritate & directione motus in dato puncto (1749) ( On determining the orbits of a planet by the aid of catoptrics/reflections from given force speed and direction of motion in a given point)
- Sopra il Turbine che la notte tra gli XI e XII giugno del MDCCXLIX danneggio una gran parte di Roma (1749; Latin translation 1766) ( Upon the whirlwind that on the night between the 11th and 12th of June 1749 damaged a large part of Rome)
- De centrogravitatis (1751) ( On the centre of gravity)
- Elementorum matheseos ad usum studiosae juventutis (1752) ( The elements of mathematics for the use of young students)
- De lunae atmosphaera (1753) (On the atmosphere of the moon)
- De continuitatis lege et eius consectariis pertinentibus ad prima materiae elementa eorumque vires dissertatio (1754) (A dissertation on the law of continuity and its consequences pertaining to the first elements of matter and of its powers)
- Elementorium universae matheseos, 1-3 (1757) (Elements of general mathematics)
- De lege virium in natura existentium (1755) (On the law of powers in the nature of existing things)
- De lentibus et telescopiis dioptricis disertatio (1755) (Of dioptric lenses and telescopes)
- De inaequalitatibus quas Saturnus et Jupiter sibi mutuo videntur inducere praesertim circa tempus conjunctionis (1756) (On the inequalities which Saturn and Jupiter seem to induce between themselves particularly around times of conjunction)
- Theoria philosophiae naturalis (1758) (A Theory of Natural Philosophy) link to full text
- De Solis ac Lunae defectibus libri (1760) (On the defects of the book 'On the sun and moon)
- Scrittura sulli danni osservati nell' edificio della Biblioteca Cesarea di Vienna, e loro riparazione (1763) (Writing on the damage observed in the building of the Library of Caesarea Vienna, and their repair)
- Memorie sopra il Porti di Rimini (1765) (A memoir on the Ports of Rimini)
- Sentimento sulla solidità della nuova Guglia del Duomo di Milano (1765) (Sentiments concerning the soundness of the new Spire of the Duomo of Milan)
- dissertationes quinque ad dioptricam pertinentes (1767) (Five dissertations pertaining to dioptrics)
- Voyage astronomique et geographique (1770) (An astronomic and geographic voyage)
- Memorie sulli cannocchiali diottrici (1771) (A memoir on dioptric telescopes)
- Journal d'un voyage de Constantinopole en Pologne (1772) (Journal of a voyage from Constantinople to Poland)
- Sullo sbocco dell'Adige in Mare (1779) (On the mouth of the River Adige)
- Riflessioni sulla relazione del Sig. Abate Ximenes appartenente al Progetto di un nuovo Ozzeri nello Stato Lucchese (1782) (comments on the report of Signor Abbot Ximenes concerning the project for the Nuovo Ozzeri drainage channel in Lucca)
- Giornale di un viaggio da Constantinopoli in Polonia dell'abate Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, con una sua relazione delle rovine di Troia (1784) (Journal of a voyage from Constantinople to Poland of Abbot Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, together with his report of the ruins of Troy)
- Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam, 1-5 (1785) (Works pertaining to optics and astronomy)
- Sui danni del Porto di Savona, loro cagioni e rimedi (1771) (On the damage to the port of Savona, it causes and possible repairs)
- Lettere a Giovan Stefano Conti (1780) (Letter to Giovan Stefano Conti)
See also
Further reading
- 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.
- Dadić, Žarko. Ruđer Bošković (Parallel text in Croatian and English). Zagreb: Školska Knjiga, 1987
- Dimitric, Radoslav. Ruđer Bošković (Serbian, with English summary, Bošković works in original, and translations into English and Serbian). Pittsburgh: Helios Publishing Company, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9788256-2-1
- 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.
- Franolić, Branko. Bošković in Britain, Journal of Croatian Studies Vol. 43, 2002 Croatian Academy of America, New York US ISSN 0075-4218
- Hrvatski biografski leksikon [The Croatian Biographical Lexicon]. Zagreb 1989. Vol 2, pp 194–199. ISBN 978-86-7053-015-7
- Justin, Rodriguez. "Scientific Revolution Atomic Projects." Stevens Journal of Oral Traditions, no. 1 (200?): xlv-xc.
- 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.
- Scott, Wilson L. "The Significance Of "Hard Bodies" In the History of Scientific Thought." Isis 50, no. 3 (1959): 199-210.
- 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.
External links
- 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
- Roger Boscovich on Britannica 1911
- Information on Boscovich's scientific legacy and ethnic affiliation
- Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, by University of St. Andrews
- Roger Joseph Boscovich, by Joseph MacDonnell
- Rudjer Boscovich, by Norway's Physical Society (in PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, by Antonio Fares
- Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich in the Catholic Encyclopedia
- Online guide to the Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich Papers, 1711-1787, The Bancroft Library
- Latin as a literary language among the Croats by Branko Franolić - contains information on Ruđer Bošković
- Ruggiero Boscovich on various Croatian Dinar banknotes.
- All Croatian banknotes with Boscovich
- 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)
- Stamp of Joseph Boscovich
- Roger Joseph Boscovich at WikiquoteWikiquoteWikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. Based on an idea by Daniel Alston and implemented by Brion Vibber, the goal of the project is to produce collaboratively a vast reference of quotations from prominent people, books,...
- About Ruđer Bošković