BOSCOVICH, RUGGERO GIUSEPPE. — Born on 18 May 1711 in Ragusa; after completing his studies at the Jesuit college in 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 upon completing his course in theology he succeeded his teacher, Fr. Borgondi, in the chair of mathematics. Already renowned for his numerous publications of a physical and astronomical nature, his opinion was sought on every important problem, whether concerning monuments to be erected or buildings to be repaired (as when dangerous cracks were discovered in the dome of St Peter’s), or problems of hydraulics in various ports of the Papal States, the regulation of rivers, the restoration of the aqueduct in Perugia, the drainage of the Lake of Bientina, and so on. In 1750, at the suggestion of Cardinal Secretary Gonzaga, together with Fr. Chr. Maire, he began geodetic work to measure two degrees of a meridian between Rome and Rimini and to correct the geographical map of the Papal States. The work was completed in two and a half years, and the map was published in Rome in 1755 in the work *De Litteraria Expeditione per pontificiam ditionem...*, an opus alone sufficient to confer imperishable fame upon its author.
In 1763, at the invitation of the Senate of Milan, he accepted a chair in Pavia. At the request of Fr. Rector Pallavicino, he designed the plan for a new observatory to be built at the Brera College in Milan. Begun in 1764 and carried out under Boscovich’s constant supervision, the construction was finished by the summer of 1765, earning the praise of all experts. Moreover, through his efforts the observatory was equipped with a series of excellent instruments, which Boscovich himself rectified and examined using highly original methods. Famous are the investigations he proposed to conduct on the aberration of fixed stars, using a sector with two telescopes, one ordinary and the other to be filled with water; this project, which he was unable to execute for lack of funds, was later carried out a century later by Airy at Greenwich. Unfortunately, owing to a disagreement with the director, Fr. Lagrange, Boscovich was dismissed from his post in 1772; having at the same time resigned the chair of optics and astronomy, established 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 for 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 Boscovich’s works fills twenty full columns in-folio in the well-known bibliography of the Society of Jesus by Sommervogel (I, cols. 1828-50). Among his more substantial works we may note: *Elementorum universae matheseos* (Rome 1752-58); *De solis ac lunae defectibus libri* (London 1760), a poem of 5,430 hexameters on solar and lunar eclipses, dedicated to the Royal Society of London; *Opera pertinentia ad opticam et astronomiam* (Bassano 1785) in 5 vols. Special mention should be made of his work: *De orbitis coetarum determinandis ope trium observationum* (Paris 1774), which earned him the highly honourable position of third, after Newton and Euler, for such researches.
But the work of which he was chiefly proud was his *Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis* (Venice 1763), in which he argued that matter is composed of simple and indivisible elements subject to forces of attraction and repulsion. Though not many have embraced his entire dynamism, it remains true that Boscovich, with his original ideas and the problems he posed, gave a notable impetus to the progress of science.
A universal genius, Boscovich was a distinguished astronomer, physicist, mathematician, architect, historian, poet, philosopher, and diplomat. While undertaking numerous journeys to almost all the European capitals to fulfil important commissions, he remained ever most faithful to the obligations of his priestly habit and honoured the Order that had educated him by the exemplary holiness of his life.
BOSCOVICH RUGGERO GIUSEPPE — BOSONE
G. V. SCHIAPARELLI, LUIGI, *Sull'attività del B. quale astronomo in Milano*, *Pubblicazioni Oss. Milano-Merate*, 2 (1938); [A. Pignatelli], *Ricercando R. B.*, in *La Civiltà Cattolica*, 1938, I, pp. 245-60. Giovanni Stein