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BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH (1711?-1787)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 279 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOSCOVICH, See also:ROGER See also:JOSEPH (1711?-1787) , See also:Italian mathematician and natural philosopher, one of the earliest of See also:foreign savants to adopt See also:Newton's See also:gravitation theory, was See also:born at See also:Ragusa in See also:Dalmatia on the 18th of May 1711, according to the usual See also:account, but ten years earlier according to See also:Lalande (Eloge, 1792). In his fifteenth See also:year, after passing through the usual elementary studies, he entered the Society of Jesus. On completing his noviciate, which was spent at See also:Rome, he studied See also:mathematics and physics at the Collegium Romanum; and so brilliant was his progress in these sciences that in 1740 he was appointed See also:professor of mathematics in the See also:college. For this See also:post he was especially fitted by his acquaintance with recentadvances in See also:science, and by his skill in a classical severity of demonstration, acquired by a thorough study of the See also:works of the See also:Greek geometricians. Several years before this See also:appointment he had made himself a name by an elegant See also:solution of the problem to find the See also:sun's See also:equator and determine the See also:period of its rotation by observation of the spots on its See also:surface. Notwithstanding the arduous duties of his professorship he found See also:time for investigation in all the See also:fields of See also:physical science; and he published a very large number of See also:dissertations, some of them of considerable length, on a wide variety of subjects. Among these subjects were the transit of See also:Mercury, the See also:Aurora Borealis, the figure of the See also:earth, the observation of the fixed stars, the inequalities in terrestrial gravitation, the application of mathematics to the theory of the See also:telescope, the limits of certainty in astronomical observations, the solid of greatest attraction, the See also:cycloid, the logistic See also:curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the See also:law of continuity, the See also:double See also:refraction See also:micrometer, various problems of spherical See also:trigonometry, &c. In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the See also:pope, See also:Benedict XIV., as to the best means of securing the stability of the See also:dome of St See also:Peter's, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered. His See also:suggestion was adopted. Shortly after he engaged to take See also:part in the Portuguese expedition for the survey of See also:Brazil, and the measurement of a degree of the See also:meridian; but he yielded to the urgent See also:request of the pope that he would remain in See also:Italy and undertake a similar task there. Accordingly, in See also:conjunction with See also:Christopher Maire, an See also:English Jesuit, he measured an arc of two degrees between Rome and See also:Rimini. The operations were begun towards the See also:close of 1750, and were completed in about two years.

An account of them was published in 1755, entitled De Litteraria expedition per pontificam ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridian See also:

gradus a PP. Maire et Boscovich. The value of this See also:work was increased by a carefully prepared See also:map of the States of the See also:Church. A. See also:French See also:translation appeared in 1770. A dispute having arisen between the See also:grand See also:duke of See also:Tuscany and the See also:republic of See also:Lucca with respect to the drainage of a See also:lake, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, as See also:agent of Lucca to See also:Vienna, and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement of the See also:matter. In the following year he published at Vienna his famous work, Theoria philosophiae naturalis redacta ad unicam legem virium in nalura existentium, containing his atomic theory (see See also:MOLECULE). Another occasion for the exercise of his See also:diplomatic ability soon after presented itself. A suspicion having arisen on the part of the See also:British See also:government that See also:ships of See also:war had been fitted out in the See also:port of Ragusa for the service of See also:France, and that the See also:neutrality of Ragusa had thus been violated, Boscovich was selected to undertake an See also:embassy to See also:London (176o), to vindicate the See also:character of his native See also:place and satisfy the government. This See also:mission he discharged successfully, with See also:credit to himself and See also:satisfaction to his countrymen. During his stay in See also:England he was elected a See also:fellow of the Royal Society. He soon after paid this society the compliment of dedicating to it his Latin poem, entitled De See also:Solis et Lunae Defectibus (London, 1764).

This prolix See also:

composition, one of a class which at that time was much in vogue—metrical epitomes of the facts of science—contains in about five thousand lines, illustrated by voluminous notes, a compendium of See also:astronomy. It was for the most part written on horseback, during the author's rides in the See also:country while engaged in his meridian measurements. The See also:book is characterized by G. B. J. See also:Delambre as " uninstructive to an astronomer and unintelligible to any one else." On leaving England Boscovich travelled in See also:Turkey, but See also:ill-See also:health compelled him soon to return to Italy. In 1764 he was called to the See also:chair of mathematics at the university of See also:Pavia, and this post he held, together with the directorship of the See also:observatory of Brera, for six years. He was invited by the Royal Society of London to undertake an expedition to See also:California to;observe the transit of See also:Venus in 1769; but this was prevented by the See also:recent See also:decree of the See also:Spanish government for the See also:expulsion of the See also:Jesuits from its dominions. The vanity, egotism and petulance of Boscovich provoked his rivals and made him many enemies, so that in See also:hope of See also:peace he was driven to frequent See also:change of See also:residence. About 1770 he removed to See also:Milan, where he continued to See also:teach and to hold the directorship of the observatory of Brera; but being deprived of his post by the intrigues of his associates he was about to retire to his native place, when the See also:news reached him (1773) of the suppression of his See also:order in Italy. Uncertainty as to his future led him to accept an invitation from the See also:king of France to See also:Paris, where he was naturalized and was appointed director of See also:optics for the marine, an See also:office instituted for him, with a See also:pension of 8000 livres. He remained there ten years, but his position became irksome, and at length intolerable.

He continued, however, to devote himself diligently to the pursuits of science, and published many remarkable See also:

memoirs. Among them were an elegant solution of the problem to determine the See also:orbit of a See also:comet from three observations, and memoirs on the micrometer and achromatic telescopes. In 1783 he returned to Italy, and spent two years at See also:Bassano, where he occupied himself with the publication of his See also:Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam, &c., which appeared in 1785 in five volumes See also:quarto. After a visit of some months to the See also:convent of See also:Vallombrosa, he went to Milan and resumed his See also:literary labours. But his health was failing, his reputation was on the wane, his works did not sell, and he gradually sank a See also:prey to illness and disappointment. He See also:fell into See also:melancholy, imbecility, and at last madness, with lucid intervals, and died at Milan on the 15th (13th) of See also:February 1787. 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, of which several See also:editions and a French translation appeared. His latest labour was the editing of the Latin poems of his friend Benedict Stay on the See also:philosophy of See also:Descartes, with scientific annotations and supplements. (W. L. R.

End of Article: BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH (1711?-1787)

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