BOSCOVICH, RUGGERO GIUSEPPE. – Born on 18 May 1711 in Ragusa: having completed his studies at the Jesuit college of that city, he entered the novitiate of the Society in Rome on 31 October 1725.
He studied philosophy and mathematics at the Collegio Romano, and as soon as he had completed the theology course he succeeded his teacher Fr. Borgondi in the chair of mathematics. By then already very renowned for his numerous publications on physical and astronomical subjects, his opinion was sought on every important problem, whether concerning monuments to be erected and buildings to be repaired (as when dangerous cracks were discovered in the dome of S. Pietro), or problems of hydraulics in various ports of the Papal States, the regulation of rivers, the restoration of the aqueduct at Perugia, the drainage of the waters of Lake Bientina, etc. In 1750, at the proposal of Cardinal Secretary Gonzaga, together with Fr. Chr. Maire, he began the geodetic work of measuring two degrees of the meridian between Rome and Rimini, and of correcting the geographical map of the Papal States. In two and a half years the work was completed, and the map was published in Rome in 1755 in the work De Litteraria Expeditione per pontificiam
Ditionem..., a work which by itself would already have sufficed to give its author everlasting fame.
In 1763, at the invitation of the Senate of Milan, he accepted a chair at Pavia. At the request of Rector Fr. Pallavicino, he designed the plan for a new observatory to be erected in the Brera college in Milan. Begun in 1764 and carried out under B.’s constant supervision, the construction was completed by the summer of 1765, winning the praise of all competent judges. Moreover, through his efforts the observatory was furnished with a series of excellent instruments, which B. corrected and examined by means of highly original methods. Famous are the investigations which he had proposed to undertake into the aberration of the fixed stars, using a sector with two telescopes, one ordinary and the other to be filled with water, a project which he was unable to carry out for lack of financial means and which was implemented a century later by Airy at Greenwich. Unfortunately, because of a disagreement between him and the director, Fr. Lagrange, B. was dismissed from the observatory in 1772; having at the same time resigned the chair of optics and astronomy founded especially for him, he left Milan. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, he went to Paris, where he was appointed director of optics in the service of the French navy. In 1782 he returned to Italy, and in 1785 he returned to his beloved observatory. He died in Milan on 13 February 1787.
The list of B.’s works fills a full twenty folio columns in Sommervogel’s well-known bibliography of the Society of Jesus (I, cols. 1828–50). Among the works of greater scope, we should also note: Elementorum universae mathesesos tomi 3, (Rome 1752–58); De solis ac lunae defectibus libri 5 (London 1760), a poem of 5430 hexameters on solar and lunar eclipses, dedicated to the Royal Society of London; Opera pertinentia ad opticum et astronomiam (Bassano 1785) in 5 vols. Special mention deserves his work: De orbitis cometarum determinandis ope trium observationum (Paris 1774), which, for these investigations, earned him the highly honourable position of third, after Newton and Euler.
But the work of which he was principally proud was his Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis (Venice 1763), according to which matter would be composed of simple and indivisible elements, subject to the forces of attraction and repulsion. Even if not many have embraced that dynamism in its entirety, it will remain true that B., through his original ideas and the problems he formulated, gave considerable impetus to the progress of science.
A universal genius, B. was an eminent astronomer, physicist, mathematician, architect, historian, poet, philosopher, and diplomat. And while, in order to carry out highly important assignments, he undertook numerous journeys to almost all the capitals of Europe, he always remained utterly faithful to the obligations of his priestly habit and, through the exemplary nature of his life, honoured the Order that had educated him.