Rudjer Boscovich

Rudjer Joseph Boscovich (first name also sometimes spelled Roger in English; Italian Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich; Croatian and Serbian Ru?er Josip Bo?kovi?, ????? ????? ????????) (May 18, 1711 – February 13, 1787), was a Jesuit, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat and poet from Dubrovnik (or Ragusa, the previously frequently referred to Italian version) who later lived in England, France and finally Italy.

Late years

In 1764 he was called to serve as the chair of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and he held this post with the directorship of the observatory of Brera in Milan, for six years.

Related Topics:
1764 - Pavia - Observatory - Brera - Milan

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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 on the expulsion of the Jesuits from its dominions. Boscovich 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.

Related Topics:
California - Transit of Venus - 1769 - Spanish - Dominions - 1777

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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 8000 "livres" and a position was created for him.

Related Topics:
Dubrovnik - 1773 - France - Paris - Optics - Livre

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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.

Related Topics:
Orbit - Comet - Micrometer - Achromatic

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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.

Related Topics:
1783 - Bassano - 1785

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After a visit of some months to the convent of Vallombrosa, he went to Brera in 1786 and resumed his literary labours. 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.

Related Topics:
Vallombrosa - 1786

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Many sources, predominantly Montenegrin, claim that after his death, he was proclaimed as "the first Serb astronomer".

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