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Beneath the Stars

The astronomer Boscovich showed a surprising interest in exploration on his own planet,discovers Christine Thomson

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What?BOSCOVICH, Ruggiero Giuseppe. Journal d’un Voyage de Constantinople en Pologne, fait a la suite de Son Excellence M Jaq Porter, Ambassadeur d’Angleterre,... Lausanne, Chez Franc. Grasset et Comp, 1772

Description First edition. 12mo, publisher’s advertisement for author’s 3 vol work on mathematics at end, early 19th century polished calf

Having catalogued with some excitement a double work by Croatian Jesuit and polymath Boscovich, the second of which, Continuitatis Lege et eius Consectariis, Rome, 1754, representing one of the earliest presentations of his atomic theories prior to his main work Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria[of 1763], I was surprised to find a work by the same author in a private travel library. What was Boscovich doing in 1762 in Constantinople arranging the journey and accompanying famous Ambassador Sir James Porter on his return overland journey to England? Roger Joseph Boscovich [Rudger J Boskovic, born Dubrovnik, 1711] had accompanied the Venetian Ambassador to Constantinople by sea. As well as physicist, geometer and philosopher, Boscovich was a talented astronomer and correspondent of the Royal Society of London. Fellow astronomer Joseph Lalande claimed there was no scholar in all Italy like Boscovich. Ambassador Porter, himself a fellow of the Royal Society, had written three pamphlets – ‘On the several Earthquakes felt at Constantinople’, ‘New Astronomical and Physical Observations made in Asia, &c’ and Observations on the Transit of Venus made at Constantinople’ – as well as his major work ‘Turkey, its History and Progress, second edition of 1771 with appendix, ‘State of the Turkish Trade from its Origins to the Present Time’. Orientalist Sir William Jones, based in India, said of Porter’s Embassy to Turkey, “The interests of our mercantile body were never better secured, nor the honour of our nation better supported.” Porter is reputed to have written a pamphlet against the partition of Poland, suppressed at the request of his government. Boscovich’s planned journey for Porter was via Poland, war having broken out with Austria, making some other overland routes dangerous. Boscovich’s contribution to astronomy included the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet and computing the orbit of a planet. Earlier in the century, scientist and

astronomer La Condamine had also visited Constantinople. Boscovich’s atomic theories to some extent anticipated certain ideas of quantum theory, foreshadowing the theory of relativity. Russian scientists have always shown a strong interest in his work and, more recently, Western scientists have become better acquainted with his contributions. Well known all over Europe, his name is found on maps of the moon, his portrait found on postage stamps and a banknote, as well as a catalogue of the Rare Books Library at the University of California in Berkeley where his special archives are preserved. His contributions to science and also architecture were many. He was called on to assist in the repair of the cupola of Milan Cathedral, to reinforce the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica, to direct the draining of the Pontine marshes, and to survey the meridian of the Papal State, quite apart from his own research. An ambassadorial progress across war-torn Europe, although a challenge, must perhaps, have been something he could take in his stride.

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