Rudjer Boscovic | Biography

Rudjer Boscovic, also known as Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, was a Jesuit mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Ragusa, Croatia (now Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia) on May 18, 1711, and died in Milan, Italy in February 13, 1787.

Boscovic's father was a Croatian merchant, and his mother was the daughter of a merchant originally from Italy. The family was of average means, but noted for its literary accomplishments. Boscovic began his education at the Jesuit college in Dubrovnik, and continued it in Rome, entering the novitiate of Sant'Andrea in 1725 at the age of fourteen.

Said to have been an excellent student, Boscovic first learned science through the independent study of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and geodesy.

He later studied mathematics and physics at the Collegium Romanum in Rome, where in 1740 he was appointed to the Chair in Mathematics in spite of the fact that he had not yet completed his theological studies. In 1754, he published a textbook, part of which was devoted to his theory of conic sections.

According to the custom of the times, Boscovic served on several practical commissions, including one investigating the origins of fissures in the cupola of St. Peter's, another involving the excavation of an ancient Roman villa, and another planning the draining of the Pontine marshes. The latter project led to his writing a series on hydraulic engineering. In 1758, he published a major work in the field on natural philosophy.

In 1759, Boscovic traveled to Paris, where he remained for six months, before moving on to London. In England, he met with representatives of the Church of England, and also met Benjamin Franklin. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1761.

Traveling to Istanbul to observe the 1671 transit of Venus, Boscovic eventually made his way to Holland, Germany, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Poland, Silesia, Austria, Venice, before reaching Rome in 1763 after an absence of four years.

In 1764, he became Professor of Mathematics at Pavia. Boscovic conducted research mainly in optics and in the improvement of telescopic lenses. He was especially interested in developing new methods to determine the orbits and rotational axes of the planets; he also investigated the shape if the Earth.

In 1770, he moved to the department of optics and astronomy at the Scuole Palatine in Milan. Soon Boscovic managed to provoke opposition from his colleagues at the observatory there. In 1772, the court in Vienna relieved Boscovic of responsibility for the observatory. Out of despair, he also resigned his professorship. And the next year, the pope suppressed the Jesuit order.

Now sixty-three years of age, Boscovic moved to Paris at the urging of friends where he was offered a directorship in optics for the navy. He remained in France until 1782, at which time he returned to Italy.

In 1785, the printing firm of the brothers Remondini brought out a five-volume set of Boscovic's writings. The preparation and proofreading of this work apparently exerted tremendous strain on Boscovic's health. Setting out again to travel, this time in Italy, Boscovic found that his mental faculties were declining. Some thought he was fortunate in that he died of a lung ailment before his mental decline had reached extreme severity. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria Podone in Milan.

Boscovic's work in instrumental science covered astronomy, optics, geodesy, mathematics, mechanics, and natural philosophy. As a theoretical scientist, he conducted investigations in mathematics, mechanics, the properties of and matter. Boscovic was also a strong advocate of Newton's theory of gravity, which he had began studying in 1735 while at the Collegium Romanum.