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See also: Italian mathematician and natural philosopher, one of the earliest of See also: foreign savants to adopt See also: Newton's gravitation theory, was See also: born at Ragusa in Dalmatia on the 18th of May 1711, according to the usual account, but ten years earlier according to 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 professor of mathematics in the See also: college
.
For this See also: post he was especially fitted by his acquaintance with recentadvances in 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 solution of the problem to find the See also: sun's equator and determine the See also: period of its rotation by observation of the spots on its See also: surface
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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 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 cycloid, the logistic See also: curve, the theory of comets, the tides, the See also: law of continuity, the See also: double refraction micrometer, various problems of spherical trigonometry, &c
.
In 1742 he was consulted, with other men of science, by the See also: pope, Benedict XIV., as to the best means of securing the stability of the dome of St See also: Peter's, Rome, in which a crack had been discovered
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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 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 conjunction with 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 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 gradus a PP . Maire etSee also: Boscovich
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The value of this See also: work was increased by a carefully prepared map of the States of the See also: Church
.
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French
See also: translation appeared in 1770
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A dispute having arisen between the See also: grand duke of See also: Tuscany and the republic of Lucca with respect to the drainage of a lake, Boscovich was sent, in 1757, as See also: agent of Lucca to Vienna, and succeeded in bringing about a satisfactory arrangement of the See also: matter
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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 MOLECULE)
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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 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 character of his native place and satisfy the government
.
This See also: mission he discharged successfully, with See also: credit to himself and 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 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 astronomy . It was for the most part written on horseback, during the author's rides in the country while engaged in his meridian measurements . TheSee also: book is characterized by G
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J
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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 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 California to;observe the transit of See also: Venus in 1769; but this was prevented by the See also: recent decree of the See also: Spanish government for the 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 hope of See also: peace he was driven to frequent
change of residence
.
About 1770 he removed to Milan, where he continued to 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 office instituted for him, with a 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 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 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 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 prey to illness and disappointment
.
He See also: fell into 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 philosophy of See also: Descartes, with scientific annotations and supplements
.
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