Boscovich: Scientist and Man of Letters

Mem. S.A.It. Suppl. Vol. 22, 34 Memorie della c SAIt 2013 Supplementi

Boscovich: scientist and man of letters

E. Proverbio

Istituto Nazionale di Astroﬁsica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via Brera 21, I-20121 Milano, Italy

Abstract. Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich (1711-1781) is known as one of the most important scientists of the second half of XVIII century, but he was active also as a man of letters, especially through an abundant production of poems in Latin verse. We try to interpret these two, apparently antinomic, aspects of his character in the framework of the culture of his epoch, in which science and literary productions were not considered as two separate or opposite fields, but only two different aspects of human knowledge. In particular we review the field of his poetic production in which this fundamental unity of knowledge is most evident, namely his poems with didactic-scientific subjects, which are examples of high-level popularization of the latest progresses in science (in particular astronomy and Newtonian physics) by means of elegant Latin verse.

Key words. History and philosophy of astronomy

1. Introduction ally, the fields of knowledge were understood and expressed at that epoch and in a deeply The title of this report apparently contains an different cultural context. We aim at decom- antinomy. Yet Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich posing Boscovich’s multiform activity, high- (1711-1781) was a scientist, among the great- ligthing the meaning and the substance of his est of his time, and a letterato, according to accomplishments, which have remained in the the meaning this term had in the XVIII and shade up to now due to a preconceived evalua- in the first half of XIX centuries. He was also tion of his literary works and of the poetic form an equally important poet, although underesti- in which these works have been issued by their mated, and a letterato, according to the mean- author. Therefore we have not explored as they ing we attach today to this same term. Here I would deserve all problems related to the birth, have undertaken the difficult task to solve this the sources and the evolution through decades antinomy and present a portrait, as faithful as of Boscovich’s thought, except when this was possible, of Ruggiero Boscovich as a scientist necessary for the comprehension of his literary and man of letters within the context of his production; rather we have tried to analyse the time, when no separation among the various historic and literary aspects of his thought as fields of knowledge had yet occurred yet. conveyed by his poetic works and his aesthetic Leaving out any critical evaluation regard- models, referring particularly to the context in ing the literary style of his poetic works, the which he was operating. We have also taken purpose of this paper is therefore to try and into account the relations he had with other sci- sketch the contents and the forms in which the entists skilled in the didactic exposition of sci- different scientific doctrines and, more gener- entific knowledge in poetic form. A more de- Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 35 tailed account, with a more comprehensive bib- low this method of classification in subsequent liography and literary sources, can be found in lists that he will make at later times. It was only Proverbio (2013). after his death, in 1787, that his biographers began to use a different criterion and subdi- vide his works according to the scientific sub- 2. Boscovich as a scientist: the ject, following a trend which was gaining im- contents of knowledge in the portance at that epoch. A similar subdivision second half of XVIII century was adopted also in the Catalogo delle opere a 2.1. Consolidated scientific areas: stampa di Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich sud- divise per materia contained in the Catalogo Boscovich’s contribution delle Opere a stampa di Ruggiero Giuseppe Nowadays Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich is Boscovich (1711-1787) published in 2007. recognized as one of the most important “scientists” of the XVIII century. However this 2.2. Boscovich and the new disciplinary definition is influenced, in a limiting sense, by the image of the “man of science”, which fields belongs to a cultural context — positivism In addition to consolidated scientific areas and scientism – started in the XIX century which were undergoing a process of pro- completely different from the one in which gressive organization,new fields of knowl- Boscovich and the men of his time who at- edge were starting and establishing themselves tended to the established fields of knowledge around the midst of the XVIII century, with or to the new, emerging sciences, were active. distinct and more and more defined physiog- The first-rank advancements brought by nomies: the new optics of achromatic sys- Boscovich to established sciences, in particu- tems, refractometry and spherometry; the new lar to astronomy, mathematics, geometry, me- branch of physics devoted to the study of natu- chanics, geodesy and physics (the problems of ral and artificial electric and magnetic phenom- motion and light) were recognized already by ena; and finally a new, broad area of investiga- his contemporaries and biographers. However tion and knowledge which will develop into the Boscovich himself documented the results of new fields of chemistry and physical chemistry, the studies accomplished in the first 25 years related to the study of the atomic structure of of his activity at the request of his friend and matter, the theory of combustion and of fun- collaborator Giovan Stefano Conti from Lucca. damental elements of matter (atoms, chemical He supplied a complete list of his works pub- elements and compounds, mixtures and chemi- lished up to 1761 in the most diverse fields cal bonds). The interest of Boscovich for those of knowledge, which he divided into four cat- new fields is undisputed; in particular the stud- egories: the “Opere”, namely the volumes ies carried out in recent years have highlighted printed by publishers of his time in Rome, the leading role played by him, both on a theo- Vienna and Padua; the “Dissertazioni”, pub- retical and practical level, in the development lished on the occasion of the debates habitae, of the optics of achromatic systems, a field or publice propugnatae at the Collegium or at also studied by Euler, Klingenstierna, Clairaut the Roman Seminary; the works published by and D’Alembert. His research and practical him in “Giornali” [journals], or “Raccolte” achievements in the field of applied optics set [collections] of pamphlets, or “Memorie”; and him as the founder of modern refractometry finally those specifically classified by him as ans spherometry. poetic works, namely his heroic Latin poems, Among the new disciplinary fields, the re- the Eclogae, the Epigrams, and his “opera search in natural and artificial electric and voluminosa” [voluminous work] De Solis ac magnetic phenomena underwent a sudden de- Lunae Defectibus, published in London in velopment around the midst of the XVIII cen- 1760 and then in Venice, dedicated to the tury. There is evidence that, as far back as Royal Society of London. Boscovich will fol- in 1746, Boscovich was attending the exper- 36 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters iments on electric phenomena conducted in 3. Boscovich as a “letterato”: the Rome by the physicist Johann Winkler, and fields of knowledge in the XVIII that he could possibly be the inspirer, if not century the author, of the two hundred lines of verse concerning the experiments performed with an 3.1. Linguistic and cultural framework: electric apparatus which were inserted in the unity of the “two cultures” second edition of the Philosophiae versibus Recently Gennaro Barbarisi (1988) was point- traditae, Libri sex by Benedetto Stay, pub- ing out that, up to the first decades of XIX lished in Rome in 1747. His interest in electric century, Boscovich was extensively referred phenomena is confirmed also in his Theoria to in literary histories and bibliographies of Philosophiae Naturalis, printed in Vienna in Italian authors. He was quoting the writers 1758, and the Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria which dealt with Italian literature, starting [Venetiis, 1763], in which he sides with the from the Vite [Lives] by Fabroni; Camillo theories about electricity of Benjamin Franklin Ugoni; Comiani, in his book I secoli della let- and Gianbattista Beccaria, of which he sup- teratura italiana [Centuries of Italian litera- plies an explanation according to his own the- ture]; then Stefano Ticozzi, Antonio Lombardi ory of fundamental forces. and Emilio de Tipaldo, who was reproduc- In these works Boscovich attempts to ex- ing with few cuts the extensive biography by plain chemical phenomena (chemical com- Ugoni. In these works Boscovich’s scientific pounds and mixtures, chemical bonds) in the activity is amply documented. light of his ideas about the structure of matter In those bibliographies and histories of and the processes of the elemental particles. At Italian literature the term letterato was still that epoch his ideas about the structure of mat- used in its etymological meaning, and referred ter did not find any direct application, and it not only to people interested at the poetic was only in the XIX century that the fecun- and literary activities or at belles-lettres in a dity of his conceptions was shown plainly by broad sense, but, more generally, to people pro- the works of the great English chemist Michel vided with the ability of reading and learn- Faraday. Nevertheless he did apply his univer- ing and therefore possessing knowledge in any sal force law, derived by his conception of mat- field: from poetry and history (including sacred ter as composed by identical, homogeneous, history) to philosophy, mathematics, medicine indivisible, non-extended elements, to explain and natural history, and the fields related to lib- diverse chemical and physico-chemical phe- eral arts. Therefore those histories of literature nomena, for instance the phenomenon of co- were the mirror of the structure of knowledge hesion, independent from density, based on the and of mutual relationships between its differ- combination of two or more elemental parti- ent fields. At the same time, they were gather- cles; he established the clear distinction being individual fields of knowledge which were tween atoms, chemical elements, compounds differentiating more and more, loosing the con- and mixtures which lies at the basis of the prin- nections still existing among them. Within ciples of chemical transformations. According the framework of positive sciences new fields to these foundations he gives an explanation of knowledge and new specializations were of the mechanism of chemical reactions asso- emerging; they were slowly obscuring the idea ciated to luminous or caloric phenomena. His that all forms of knowledge be anchored to a ideas about fermentation differ from theories unique common root, establishing instead the based on phlogiston and are related to his con- principle of the differentiation, and later of the cepts on the energetic transformations occur- pre-eminence and hegemony of a “form” of ring during chemical reactions. Boscovich will knowledge over the others, and giving rise to come back to these ideas and develop them separate cultural roles, connected to the images further in his notes to book X of volume III of the “man of science” and the “man of let- of Philosophiae recentioris versibus traditae, ters”. Nevertheless, around the midst of the Libri X [Romae, 1792] by Benedetto Stay. Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 37

XVIII century, the difference between letter- front of the Sun in 1753. Ruggiero Boscovich ato and scienziato was not yet born, and the and Christophoro Maire had also given the idea of a unique “literary world” in which po- title De Litteraria Expeditione [Literary ex- etic, mathematical and philosophic works were pedition] to the book describing their efforts coexisting was widely accepted by all learned for the determination of the length of the de- men, throughout Italy and Europe. Boscovich gree of meridian in the Papal State, published himself confirmed this tendency when he wrote in 1755. We also know that Boscovich pub- from Rome to his brother Natale on 23rd April lished an extended review of the first edition 1748 (probably with reference to a first draft of of Lalande’s Astronomie on the Abstract of his Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria, on which European Literature for the Year 1766. A sec- at that epoch he was already working): I think ond review of this important treatise on the as- that with the work I have in my hands I will tronomy of XVIII century was published by multiply one hundred times the slight esteem him in 1765 in the first volume of Il Caffè I’m enjoying throughout the literary world. by Pietro Verri, in which he was presented as one among the most important men of letters in Europe. Also Clairaut defined him as 3.2. Boscovich and the “Repubblica dei the greatest Mathematician whom Italy can be letterati” proud and put him in the category of “let- Several sources indicate that Ruggiero terati” in the letter written to George Parker, Boscovich, like other scientists during the Count of Macclesfield, then President of the XVIII century, was recognized as a letterato Royal Society on the occasion of Boscovich’s and considered as a member of the Repubblica journey to England (May 1760). dei letterati [Republic of men of letters]. Boscovich himself, in a letter to Puccinelli 3.3. The Arcadia and the poetic on 5th November 1779, was a testimony of production of the men of science the equivalence, then commonly accepted, between “man of letters” and “man of sci- After the death in Rome, in 1689, of Christina ences”, when he indicated a scientist like Jean of Sweden, who used to gather in her Chamber Baptiste Brochart de Saron, mathematician Academy scientists and poets in weekly meet- and astronomer, as well as president of Paris ings, some of them decided to continue the Parliament, as gran letterato [great man of gatherings by founding a new Academy. The letters] . official establishment of the new Academy In fact, a large fraction of the works on took place on 5th October 1690 in Rome, in astronomy, physics and mathematics written the garden of Padri Riformati in S. Pietro in by Boscovich during his stay at the Collegio Montorio, on the initiative of fourteen promot- Romano up to about 1760 were published on ers coming from eight different Italian regions; journals whose names confirm the different among them Giovan Mario Crescinbeni (from meaning, from an etymological and philolog- Marche) and Gian Vincenzo Gravina (from ical point of view, of the term letterato and Calabria), who were supporting two different its derivatives at that epoch. I refer mainly conceptions of the role of the new Academy. to the Giornale de’ Letterati, published up to Vincenzo Gravina, rigorously classicist, con- 1744 with the subtitle Novelle letterarie oltra- ceived the Arcadia as the place where the montane [Literary news from the other side spirit of Greeks an Latin appears, clad with of the Alps], printed in Rome, but also in Dantesque solidity and Petrarchan elegance Pisa and Florence; from 1747, it published and candour and defended this point of view several papers by Ruggiero Boscovich dealing in his Ragion poetica. For Crescinbeni the new with physics, terrestrial physics, mathematics, Academy, born from a common feeling of op- gnomonics, besides the results of the observa- position against the baroque degenerations of tions of lunar and solar eclipses performed by previous century, had to become an important him in Rome, and of the passage of Mercury in point for the elaboration of new ideas, open to 38 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters the contribution of men of letters and scien- in Rome and in the Colonie, providing inter- tists throughout Italy. In his Istoria della vol- esting contributions to the diffusion of scien- gar poesia [History of vulgar poetry], printed tific knowledge in poetic form. In the mean- posthumously in 1730, Crescinbeni gave a time several scholars tried their hands at writ- Short notice of ancient and modern condition ing poems in imitation of the works written by of the Assembly of the Arcadians, published famous poets and men of letters in the form in year 1712. Summary of the History of the of canzoni, elegies, epistles, eclogues, sonnets aforesaid Assembly up to year 1718; he sum- and poemi [long poems], written for all sorts marized in this way the goals he assigned to the of occasions (weddings, births, deaths, hon- Academy: “In order to cultivate more the study orary appointments) and dealing with the most of sciences and to awaken throughout Italy the diverse matters. During these first decades of good taste in humanistic letters, particularly its activity, poems written by scientists on sci- in vulgar Poetry, which is now quite sleepy, entific matters were very rare in Arcadia — some men of letters established in Rome, on 5th but the same is true in general for the whole October of the year 1690, a literary Assembly literature in the first half of the XVIII cen- in the form of a democratic Republic, encom- tury. Their poetic output was directed towards passing almost all men of letters in Italy, and the representation of various events concern- some also from the other side of the Alps. ing the domain of affections, friendships, cel- Under the guidance of Crescinbeni and in ebrations. As an example, we can find a son- the following period, from 1728 to 1743, un- net having the title The lightning among the der Francesco Lorenzini as Custode genera- Poesie by Francesco Lorenzini (member and le [General guardian], the Arcadia appeared former Custode generale of Arcadia with the to fulfill the goals conceived by its main au- pen name of Filacida Luciniano); but, when we thor and its meetings were attended actively by read it, we realize that it contains only an alle- Italian men of letters, historians, philosophers gory about the God of Love who makes use and scientists. According to Isidoro Carini of bow and arrows like lightnings against the (1891), prefect of Vatican Library, at least up unlucky lover. Only later the idea that it was to the second half of the XVIII century the possible and indeed useful to express estab- Arcadia it was not only an academy of po- lished scientific theories and scientific learning etry, but an eclectic gathering of scholars, ex- in poetic language was conceived and put into pert in any field of knowledge, and joined only practice. Under the inspiration of classic tradi- for this purpose (...) to give a visible sem- tion, a new production of didactic, scientific- blance to knowledge and to add to the real ad- philosophic poems was started; its most dis- vances of historic, moral, physical and math- tinguished and representative examples were ematical disciplines the pleasantness of style carried out by Ruggiero Boscovich, with his and the ornamentation of words: a goal, as didactic poem De Solis ac Lunae defectibus it is clearly evident, of the utmost nobility. and by Benedetto Stay with his “Cartesian Nevertheless in the following decades, start- poem” Philosophiae versibus traditae libri VI ing from the end of the 1750s, under the guid- [Six books of philosophy expressed in poetic ance of Michel Giuseppe Morei, third Custode form] and later with his “Newtonian poem” Generale (1743-1766), the Academy will un- Philosophiae recentioris libri X [Ten books dergo a slow decline, as witnessed by Saverio about the most recent philosophy], equipped Bettinelli, Jesuit and member of the Arcadia with extended and significant annotations and with the pen name of Diodoro Delfico, in his additions by Boscovich himself. Vergilian letters, written from Elysium to the Arcadia in Rome, about misuses introduced in Italian poetry, published in 1758. 3.4. The rise of the new didactic poetry Up to the midst of the XVIII century, sev- before Boscovich eral scientists learned in the poetic language The fourth and last volume of On the history took active part in the meetings of the Arcadia and reason of any poetry / Four volumes by Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 39

Francesco Saverio Quadrio (1695-1756), man his Discorso Bettinelli does not have as bench- of letters and polygraph author, was published mark Greek and Latin tradition, but the clas- in Milan in 1749. It represented a first at- sics of Renaissance like Ariosto and Tasso, tempt to sketch a universal history of poetry, and opposes these models to the emergence including a concise anthology of poets and of the new didactic and philosophic-scientific their works, and was filled with scholarly ma- poetry. It seems that Bettinelli himself, who terial, divided into the Aristotelian categories. in 1744 had written Gionata, a tragedy in the However, it contained very little information tradition of Jesuitic theatre highly regarded on the revival, within Arcadia and outside by Ruggiero Boscovich and Benedetto Stay, Arcadia, of a didactic poetry which, compared was disturbed by the new tendency of po- to the didactic poetry of the Renaissance and etic literature to deal with scientific matters; XVII century, was based on the increasing con- it seems that in his heroicomic poem The tribution by scientists, besides renowned poets world of the Moon, published in Venice in and men of letters, and made use of new po- 1754, he wished to dissociate himself from etic forms (sonnets, ballads, canzoni, epistles those trends which tried to reconcile the de- in blank verse) in addition to the forms of the mands of the poetic form with scientific rea- didactic tradition of preceding centuries. While son. The subject of the poem, the hypotheti- the content of the didactic poetry of the XVI cal existence of inhabitants of the Moon, had and XVII centuries was almost exclusively nat- been the object of scrutiny and conjectures uralistic, the scope of the new didactic poetry by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton, was broadening towards the new discoveries based on their knowledge at their respective and new fields of knowledge which were es- times. In Bettinelli’s work, the same topic is tablishing themselves in the XVIII century. We transformed into a poetic fable, fittingly falling must also note that this change in the forms within the Aristotelian category of epic-comic and contents of didactic poetry towards a po- poetry, surely not within the didactic-scientific etic production of philosophic-scientific sub- literature; probably this choice, on the part of ject could establish itself only with difficulty, a Jesuit like Bettinelli, was also dictated by the both at a practical level, due to the persistence intent of mocking the hypothesis of the exis- of pre-existing traditions, and at a theoretical tence of inhabitants on the Moon, which the level, due to the permanence of Aristotelian Catholic Church could not accept a priori. conceptions on poetry which exerted their au- These examples highlight a delay in the thority also on the founders of Arcadia and theoretical elaboration of the forms and con- many of their successors, at least up to the first tents of poetic production by some of the rep- half of XVIII century. resentatives of the Arcadian culture even af- A confirmation of these difficulties can be ter the midst of XVIII century; on the other found in the fact that no mention of the didac- hand we witness, after the first decades of the tic poetry is contained in the remarks on poetic Arcadian experience — and in particular right art published in 1768 by the scientist Francesco among its members, and with an important Maria Zanotti in his Five argumentations on contribution by scientists — a new flourishing poetic art, and that in his Disquisition on of a significant series of poetic works having Italian poetry, published in 1780, Saverio didactic or philosophic-scientific content, and Bettinelli, man of letters, seems to unearth the an attempt to systematize these works within a argumentations upheld by Vincenzo Gravina in conception of poetic production going beyond the initial period of Arcadia, against the danger the Aristotelian dichotomy between poetic and of introducing new poetic models and a prosaic scientific works. We also note that a signifi- style into poetry. However, unlike Gravina, in cant fraction of these authors belonged to the Society of Jesus. 40 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters

3.5. Jesuit and non-Jesuit members of rice. Girolamo Baruffaldi (1675-1755), mem- Arcadia of second generation: the ber of the Colonia Ferrarese of Arcadia (es- development of scientific-didactic tablished in 1699) with the name of Cluento poetry Nettunio, published in 1741 the didactic poem Il Canapajo [The hemp craftsman] in eight Among the Jesuits, members of Arcadia of books; it was written for the town of Cento the second generation, we have already quoted which had welcomed him as a citizen, and Girolamo Lagomarsini (1698-1773) as the au- which had as its strong point the cultivation of thor of the poem De origine fontium, read in hemp. front of the Collegio Romano in 1726 and pub- In Rome several members of the Collegio lished in 1749 together with the Botanica by Romano combined their contributions to re- Savastano (see above); he is also the author of search and teaching in the mathematical and a singular elegy in couplets: Aleae Januensis physical field with the production of po- Romam traductae ratio, probably written in etic works of scientific and didactic na- 1732-1733 to celebrate the introduction in ture. Among them, Girolamo Lagomarsini, Rome of the lottery game, occurred in 1731 un- who taught Greek language at the Collegio der Pope Clement XII. Among the Arcadians Romano from 1751 until the suppression of the who were participating to the discussion on the Society of Jesus in 1773. The most authori- origin of water springs and sources, Ubertino tative of these writers was the mathematician Landi (1687-1770) from Piacenza, member Orazio Borgondio (1679-1741), member of the of the Colonia Romana of Arcadia since Roman Arcadia since 1721 with the name of 1711 with the name of Atelmo Lucasiano, Achemenide Megalopolitano. Provided with played a prominent role in the activity of the a deep knowledge and love for Latin lan- Colonia Trebbiense of Arcadia, founded in guage and poetry, Borgondio wrote — dur- 1715; in 1734 he published an eclogue on ing his autumn holidays, if we believe the ac- the Sistema Vallisneriano dell’Origine delle count of Giulio Cesare Cordara — a series Fontane [Vallisnerian theory on the origin of of short poems in Latin hexameters, dealing sources], in which, like Lagomarsini, he up- with all diverse aspects of mechanical motion; holds the hypothesis of Vallisneri on the origin their source, it seems, was De moto animalium of rivers Only from rains and snows. by Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608-1689). In Often — and particularly within Arcadia his biography of Borgondio, Giulio Cesare — the subject of didactic poetry was sug- Cordara reports: Six of these poems, namely gested by issues connected with the economic de Volatu, de Natatu, de Incessu, de Motu and productive environment, which were ca- sanguinis, de Respiratione, de Fluminibus, are pable of exciting the poetic inspiration of po- printed in volumes I and II of Latin poets and men of letters. As an example of ems of Arcadia, and another one, namely this fact we may quote the works by two de Lue bovina, appears in volume III of poets, both members of Arcadia, one from Vallisnieri’s works. In his work Gli scrittori Verona and the other from Ferrara, who, sim- d’Italia [Italian writers], volume II, part III ilarly to their Renaissance forerunner Luigi (1762), Giammaria Mazzucchelli reports that Alamanni, showed a particular attention to- in the Archives of Arcadia are preserved, towards the problems of agriculture and farming gether with the manuscripts of de Respiratione of their native land. Giambattista Spolverini and de Fluminibus, two fine Italian Eclogues (1695-1762), member of the Colonia veronese by Borgondio, ‘one dealing with light, and of Arcadia (established in 1705) with the name the other with aurora borealis; the same in- of Libilio Telpusiense, is famous for his didac- formation is given also by De Backer (1853) tic poem in blank verse Rice culture, published and Sommervogel (1890), who both refer to in 1758, on which he worked for more than Mazzucchelli; De Backer and Sommervogel a decade. It describes the life in paddy fields credit Borgondio also with a Canzone sopra i and the activities related to the cultivation of sistemi della Terra [Canzone on the systems of Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 41 the Earth], adding that it was read by the author with extensive and thorough annotations by at the Academy of Arcadia. A subject which Boscovich himself, prepared by him during up to now has not been investigated with due the first months of 1747. Without doubt ,the attention is the legacy of Orazio Borgondio to source of Carlo Noceti’s De iride of 1729 was Carlo Noceti and Ruggiero Boscovich, and the the Newtonian theory of the light, set forth by relationships among them, concerning two im- Newton in his Opticks of 1704. More difficult portant topics as the light and the aurora bo- is the search for the sources of Noceti’s Aurora realis, since these topics were object of great Borealis, which can be identified in the Traité interest by both Noceti and Boscovich. On Physique et Historique de l’Aurore Boreale the other hand a testimony to the relationship by de Mairan (1731 and 1733), in the De and friendly tie of Boscovich with Borgondio Aurora Boreali Dissertatio by Boscovich can be found in the lengthy passage dedicated (1738), and moreover — but we don’t know by Boscovich to his master contained in the to what extent — in the suggestions we think Eclogue read by him in Arcadia in 1753 on the Boscovich could have given to him during the occasion of the Olympic Games. composition of the Latin poem. Concerning In addition to Orazio Borgondio, Carlo the annotations added by Boscovich to De Noceti (1694-1759), member of Roman Iride et Aurora Boreali Carmina, noteworthy Arcadia with the name of Niceta Falanzio, are his knowledge of Newtonian optics and was one of the Jesuits of the Collegio Romano his contribution to the solution of formulae showing a penchant for didactic poetry; in on double and multiple refraction, only out- 1729 he published in Venice the didactic poem lined by Newton; as for the aurora borealis, De iride [On the rainbow], declaimed during Boscovich proves he is very well aware of an Academic celebration at the Collegio all the previous astronomical literature on the Romano, then reprinted the following year, phenomenon, although his main source is the again in Venice, in the Novelle della repub- work by de Mairan, to whom he pays several blica delle Lettere [News from the republic of times a tribute of gratitude. As a matter of Letters]. We do not know how this didactic fact, De Iride et Aurora Boreali Carmina of poem was received outside the Collegio 1747 had remarkable success, winning the Romano; in the work, after rejecting the approval of de Mairan, of Abbe´ Nollet and hypotheses of Pliny, Seneca and other ancient of other physicists and men of letters of the authors on the origin of rainbow, Carlo Noceti time, and was reviewed favourably in Italy supplies an explanation of the phenomenon and abroad. We have also to point out that De using the laws of refraction and the Newtonian Iride et Aurora Boreali were reprinted without theory of the dispersion of light into seven Boscovich’s annotations within the series of colours, on the basis of the famous experiment Poemata Didascalica [Didactic poems] of with the prism. We know also from a letter 1749, and that in 1755 the two poems were by Ruggiero Boscovich that in 1746 Carlo published, again without notes, in a translation Noceti read in Arcadia — in the course of in Tuscan verse by Antonio Ambrogi, Jesuit of five sessions, about 300 lines at a time — the Collegio Romano, pupil of Carlo Noceti. a Latin poem on the Aurora Boreali and The Jesuit father Giuseppe Maria Mazzolari that, during the same sessions, Boscovich (1712-1786), from the same Collegio Romano, was commenting on the Latin text with five edited the publication in 1751 of three almost dialogues in Italian, explaining and delving unknown Eclogues by Carlo Noceti, together into the covered matter; the dialogues were with some Eclogues of French Jesuit Rene´ printed in 1748 in the Giornale de’ Letterati Papin, author of didactic poems. [Journal of men of letters] in Rome. Noceti’s As far as we know Boscovich attended poem on the Aurora Borealis, on the other Carlo Noceti’s class of physics in the years hand, was published in 1747, apparently on 1730-1731, second school year of the triennial suggestion of Boscovich, together with a new course of Philosophy prescribed by the Ratio edition of De iride; both poems were supplied Studiorum of the Society of Jesus. It seems that 42 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters in that class Noceti discussed, together with De some misunderstanding. As a matter of fact Coelo and the Meteorology by Aristotle, also his application for admission as a Pastore physical theories on the rainbow and in partic- Arcade [Arcadian shepherd] — made at an un- ular the theory and the optical experiments by known epoch — was accepted at the begin- Newton, making reference to his own De Iride, ning of year II of Olympiad DCXXIX, namely published in 1729. In 1748, the year in which around the beginning of spring of 1738, the Dialoghi Pastorali [Pastoral dialogues] by the Custode GeneraleFrancesco Lorenzini, were published, Boscovich had been hold- in Arcadia Filacida Lucidiano, who ap- ing the chair of Mathematics at the Collegio pointed him Arcade soprannumero [supernu- Romano for eight years, and therefore was a merary Arcadian] with the name of Numenio colleague of his former teacher, to whom he [Anigreo]. Boscovich’s application to the was paying respect and recognition for his sci- Roman Arcadia was presented by two Pastori entific merits. Only at the end of the 1750s, at Arcadi: the first one was Tirro Creopolita, the epoch of the death of Carlo Noceti and of namely Giuseppe Enrico Carpani (1683-1762), the journey of Boscovich to Paris and London Jesuit, who at that epoch was Prefetto degli which represents a break-up of his relation- studi [master responsible for discipline] at the ships with the Collegio Romano, his assess- Collegio Romano; we do not know the name ment of the teachings imparted by his mas- of the second one, but it seems he cannot ter in the fields of mathematics and physics be identified either with Orazio Borgondio appears to be quite unfavourable — as it is (Achemenide Megalopolita), or with Carlo evident from the letter written by Boscovich Noceti (Niceta Falantio). We have reason to to his brother Bartolomeo on 25th December think that the appointment of Boscovich in 1759 from Paris after the death of Noceti — al- 1738 as a member of Roman Arcadia — at that though Boscovich was still exhibiting towards epoch under the rule of Francesco Lorenzini, a him an unaltered esteem on a personal and hu- close friend of Carpani — was due to his for- man level. mer poetic production. It is not easy to envision the intellectual 4. Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich as a route which urged Boscovich, during his stay member of Arcadia: his poetic in Fermo in 1733-1734 — after three years of philosophical studies at the Collegio Romano production under the direction of Orazio Borgondio and 4.1. The Arcadia and the first poetic and later of Carlo Noceti, during which his great literary works by Boscovich skills in mathematical studies came to light — to use his natural inclination towards poetic ex- On 15th August 1744 Boscovich, having com- pression and to write, in the form of elegies pleted his theological studies, was ordained or epigrams, five poems, which reached us un- priest and became a fully fledged member of der the name of Carmina and that, as far as the Society of Jesus. He had therefore the op- we know, were never published. It seems that portunity of devoting himself full-time to his Boscovich wrote part of these works in the favourite studies of mathematics — he had summer of 1734, during his stay in Fermo as been holding the chair of Mathematics at the a teacher of grammar and humanities; proba- Collegio Romano for four years, as the suc- bly he completed these poems after his return cessor of Orazio Borgondio — and physics. to Rome, starting from the end of November He could also give free rein to the produc- 1734, and read them in 1735 to the pupils tion of didactic poems, a field in which he of the course of humanities he was holding had already given significant proofs, which at Roman Seminary from 1735 to 1737. The cleared his way for being accepted as a mem- content of these poems was related in differ- ber of the prestigious Academy of Arcadia. ent forms to a problem which, had been trou- By the way, the date of affiliation of Ruggiero bling the Christian world for a long time and Boscovich to Roman Arcadia has undergone particularly the Catholic Church: the looming Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 43 danger coming from the expansionist policy of and the characteristics assigned by Boscovich Ottoman Empire towards Europe and Italian and many of his contemporaries in the XVIII States. This had been at the origin of the re- century to the poetic form in the transmission cent Ottoman-Venetian War of 1714-1717 and of knowledge, and pointing out the delicate of the Austro-Turkish War of 1716-1718, and equilibrium between the different forms of was going to produce the Russian-Turkish War, communication, which were undergoing a whose first stirrings were becoming apparent process of rapid modification. just at the beginning of 1735. In these two po- Boscovich’s poetic work, with an histori- ems, relating to the prediction of the untimely cal, social and political character, should be death of Emperor Ferdinand IV (1633-1654) considered as the result of his innate inter- by the Bohemian Jesuit Stredonius, which later est in the events influencing the world and proved true, Boscovich expresses the hope the society of his epoch; in this respect we and the prophecy of the imminent fall of the can understand also his persistent attention to Turkish Empire; in an epigram he connects the events involving his native Dubrovnik, in- the fall with the occurrence of a lunar eclipse, dustrious independent republic which, together while in other two elegies he sings the praises with the entire Dalmatia, was affected by the of Christian princes against the Turkish yoke, ups and downs of the Republic of Venice and and in particular of Prince Eugene of Savoy the Ottoman Empire to which it was, although (1663-1736), then engaged in the War of the indirectly, politically subject. It is likely that Polish Succession. his natural attitude and skill towards all forms These first, short poetic works by of communication and high-level populariza- Boscovich, then 25 years old, show that tion of knowledge are among the motivations his poetic inspiration focuses on commenting, which prompted him to tackle physics, but extolling, or trying to pass a dispassionate mainly with astronomy and astronomical phe- judgement on facts and historic events touch- nomena in his poems with a didactic-scientific ing in some way the life of single persons or of character, a trend which was establishing itself whole communities. Therefore they represent a in the XVIII century together with the develop- useful document for understanding the moods, ment of science and new fields of knowledge. the historical events and the cultural contents It is likely that these Carmina, and the of the society of that epoch. In the specific didactic-scientific poem read at the Collegio case of these poems, Boscovich himself lets Romano in 1735 paved the way for the ad- us know, in the preface to the manuscript of mission of Boscovich in 1738 to the pres- the Carmina, that his interest for the complex tigious Academy of Arcadia. His first sci- politic-diplomatic situation of those years con- entific work, presumably under the guidance vinced him of the opportunity of commenting, of Orazio Borgondio, related to his observa- in a poetic form, on the circumstances and tions of sunspots, appeared in 1736. Later his the hopes for a better world, prophesying the interest and skill for mathematical research defeat of the Turkish Empire, although he prompted him to take a leading role in the de- gives no hint about the intended addressees of bates held in the Roman Seminary and to par- these works. Boscovich also declares that his ticipate to the drafting of the essays which were reference point and poetic model in writing the subjects of such debates. In the following his Carmina had been Virgil’s Aeneid, whose four years, from 1737 to 1740, he published first books were the subject of the lectures seven additional essays in the fields of astron- of humanities he was giving to his young omy, mechanics and geodesy; they highlighted students. I think that, if we add to these his exceptional talent and insight in these disci- characteristics of Boscovich’s poetic output plines and made him known and appreciated by his poems devoted to the communication the European scientific community and espe- and circulation of scientific knowledge, in cially in France, clearing his way for the presti- particular physics and astronomy, we can gious appointment, in the summer of 1748, as a sketch a picture shedding light on the role Correspondent Member of the Paris Academy; 44 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters they also were a first step for his subsequent can say that Boscovich was persuaded that the recognition as one of the major scientists of the poetic form had to be preferred for convey- XVIII century. ing scientific contents in a popularized fash- ion (didactic poetry), and at the same time he favoured the poetic form for expressing con- 4.2. Boscovich’s civic, epigrammatic and tents different from scientific matters (civic, epic poetry epigrammatic, epic, heroic and lyric poetry). It is difficult for us to establish how and when During a first period, ranging more or less from Boscovich’s poetic creativity, after his first at- 1747 to 1750, Boscovich has to be credited, as tempts at elegiac and didactic-scientific poetry far as we know, with at least four poetic works of 1735, and after his appointment as a member having civic-heroic or epic-epigrammatic char- of Roman Arcadia in 1738, came to light in the acter. On the occasion of the solemn election Roman Seminary, in the Collegio Romano and in Arcadia, on 1st August 1748, of Charles III within Arcadia through the production of other de Bourbon, then king of Naples and Sicily, poems and essays in verse which, at least up to with the name of Eraclidus Samius, and of the second half of the 1740s, appear not to have his consort Maria Amalia of Saxony with the been published. We assume that the “breve po- name of Olimpia Egeria, Boscovich recited a emetto” [short poem] written for Christmas, Latin poem, which he had written in the space about which Boscovich writes in a letter to of one morning and which was published in his brother Natale in February 1739, can be 1749 in the eleventh volume of the Rime degli identified with In Ortu Christi Domine carmen Arcadi. If we believe Elisabeth Hill (1961), “in [Poem for the birth of Christ the Lord], pre- 1747 Boscovich composed an eclogue to cel- served among other Boscovich’s manuscripts ebrate the elevation of J. F. Albani to the of- at Berkeley Bancroft Library. After then, and fice of Cardinal”, but no trace of this eclogue up to the completion of his theological studies can be found in the bibliographic catalogue of in 1744, we have no further notice of any po- Boscovich’s works compiled by Hill herself, etic activity by Boscovich. nor in other bibliographies of published works. In 1744 Boscovich wrote an Epigramma Some verses added to the first canto of De so- pro recuperata valetudine Joannis V [Epigram lis ac Lunae defectibus [On solar and lunar for the recovery of the health of John V] when eclipses], dated at about 1757, are dedicated John V of Braganza, king of Portugal, was to the cardinals Landi and Giovan Francesco struck down by paralysis; the epigram was Albani but, apart from the dating, they do not published in 1756 in the Rime degli Arcadi seem to have relationship with the eclogue in- [Rhymes of Arcadians]. This poem was fol- dicated by Hill. On the contrary, we know of lowed, after the reading in Arcadia of his other two short poems of that period which had Dialoghi sopra l’Aurora Boreale [Dialogues been published; Boscovich himself, in his let- on the aurora borealis] in 1746 and their ter of 23rd May 1761 in which he was listing to publication in 1748, by a series of poetic Stefano Conti all his works printed up to 1760, works, some of which were published, oth- was announcing the fact with the words: On the ers remained unpublished; they confirm that occasion of the opening of the new building of in Boscovich were not acting two distinct per- the University of Vienna, in a large anthology sonalities, but that he possessed a unified un- printed there, is contained a short Latin poem derstanding of knowledge which combined to- of mine (the date is uncertain, but probably be- gether scientific creativity and poetic inspira- tween 1751 and 1754). Further on, in the same tion. It seems also that Boscovich, already at letter, he added: A Cantatina in Italian verse that epoch, was not only aware of his own po- on the Visitation was also printed in Viterbo, etic skill, but was also laying claim of his ca- in the year 1750, which I had to prepare in the pability of using the poetic inspiration as an course of few hours by changing the words to auxiliary form of expression, complementary six profane ariettas in such a way as to keep to his scientific production. In other words we the music unchanged, and write the recita- Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 45 tives so that they were linked to the ariettas, not used for 27 years, to Lycidas; a long list and could be inserted between them, adding of illustrious, deceased Arcadians follows, a choir, and having everything distributed and starting from the four Pontiffs Clement XI, sung. By now it would be possible to find out Innocent XIII, Clement XII and Benedict XIII, only few copies of the printed edition. three Cardinals (Giuseppe Maria Tommasi, These poetic works were followed by oth- Giambattista Tolomei, Francesco Maria ers, much more interesting and meaningful, Corsini) and other famous men of letters. which can be considered as representative, in In the same eclogue Boscovich draws a form and content, of Boscovich’s poetic pro- sorrowful and reverential portrait of his master duction in the field of heroic, lyric, epic and Orazio Borgondio. The eclogue created quite epigrammatic poetry and which are still wait- a sensation and concurred to introduce the ing — together with his didactic-scientific po- name and the poetic activity of Boscovich to etic production, which will be discussed later the contemporary cultural and literary world, — for an in-depth study in the framework of well beyond the circle of Roman Arcadia, the activities carried out by Boscovich in par- as shown by the comprehensive review in allel with his scientific research. It is interest- Literary history of Italy by Francesco Antonio ing to point out that this production can be Zaccaria in 1755. In the same year, Boscovich traced along the whole course of Boscovich’s read another short poem versibus eroicis [in life, with the exception of two long periods in heroic verse] in Arcadia when the portrait of which he was diverted from it, first by his long Stanisław Leszczynski,´ King of Poland and journeys to France, England, Constantinople member of Arcadia with the name of Eutimio and Vienna and by the beginnings of his aca- Alfireo, was presented to the assembly of demic activity in Pavia, then in the early 1770s, the Academy. Leszczynski´ was living in with his move and stay in France; this con- Nancy, capital of Lorraine, which had been firms that this production represented a sig- assigned to him by the Peace of Vienna of nificant component of his activity, in parallel 1735. In the poem, which was translated and rather than in competition with his scientific published in French in 1754 by a “Chevalier activity. Boscovich considered didactic poetry de Cogolin” — presumably Joseph de Cuers as the most suitable mean for spreading high- de Cogolin (1702-1760) — Boscovich, after level physical and astronomical knowledge to an introductory apology of King Stanisław, a wide audience; in his literary poetic works, gives an account in verse of the troubled life geared to celebrate, solemnize, gratify or com- of this ill-fated prince. This poem was also passionate, he addresses different themes en- well received, particularly in the French court trusting the poetic inspiration with the task of where, during the visit of Boscovich in Paris reaching the same audience for communicat- in April 1760, was presented to the Dauphin. ing facts and events worth remembering, often After the auspicious poem on the new resorting to mythological suggestions and as- University of Vienna decreed by Maria tronomical reminiscences. Theresa (1751-54), he wrote a second poem In 1753 Boscovich published two poetic in 1756 to celebrate the actual opening of the works. The first one is an eclogue presented University on 5th April 1756; the poem was at the convention of the Academy of Arcadia published in Vienna in the same year. It is in- during the Olympic Games of 1753 (Olympiad teresting to emphasize that Boscovich wrote DCXXXIII), celebrated in Rome in honour these two carmina for extolling the merits and of deceased Arcadians, in which Michele the long-sightedness of the Empress who pro- Giuseppe Morei, then Custode generale of the moted the establishment of institutions aiming Academy, proposed to commemorate the most at the regeneration of education and scientific renowned Arcadians of the past by creating research, in the framework of the reform of images and portraits (effigies formandas). teaching and of scientific faculties initiated by In the eclogue, Tytirus describes the new Maria Theresa and the government of Vienna apparatus for the celebration of the Games, with the purpose of removing teaching and re- 46 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters search from the control of the Church and aca- and Austria, France and Russia with their allies demic cliques, particularly for courses which — was in full progress. Already in the first let- were taught in Jesuit faculties like philosophy ters to his brother Bartolomeo, Boscovich sup- and theology, but also law and medicine; it plied him with detailed and documented news is not accidental that the new University was about the progress of the war in its different built just next to the historic location of the military sectors, manifesting his warm involve- Jesuit church and college. If Boscovich, as it ment for the victories, and his sorrow for the is reasonable to think, was then fully aware of defeats of Imperial troops. Already since June these projects, which involved the realization 1757, soon after the defeat of Frederick II by of new, big buildings for teaching and research, the Field-Marshal von Daun, who forced him we must suppose that his poems in praise of to raise the siege of Prague and quit Bohemia, Maria Theresa were also, if not mainly, mo- Boscovich thought or had already started to tivated by the desire of gaining an increased write a heroic poem on the war of Maria favour with the Empress with regard to deci- Theresa, which he named Pietas austriaca tri- sions which were touching the interests of the unfans [The triumph of Austrian piety]. At the Church of Rome and the Society of Jesus. beginning of September he sent his brother Boscovich travelled between Rome and Bartolomeo part of the first book consisting of Lucca from the second half of 1756 to the early 934 lines, stressing the fact that he had com- spring of 1757, as a consequence of his in- posed it ‘mostly going around alone on a coach volvement in the negotiations for the contro- for my own business, as I did when writing versy between that Republic and Grand Duchy my books on eclipses, going around for the of Tuscany about the “problem of waters”. He Papal States, where the hint is at his poem was also summoned to Vienna to defend the De solis ac Lunae defectibus. This first part interests of the Republic of Lucca where he of the poem got an immediate warm reception stayed from the beginning of April 1757 to the and, as it seems, was also read by Metastasio, end of March 1758. In late autumn of 1756 the official imperial poet in Vienna. The poem Benedict XIV was struck — it seems owing was then sent to other celebrities, including to a violent flue — by a severe form of urine Monsignor Cristoforo Mighazzi, archbishop of retention which weakened him and led to his Vienna, who introduced it to Maria Theresa. death on 3rd May 1758. In a letter of 18th In December 1757 Boscovich had started to January 1757 Boscovich informed his brother write the second part of the poem, but was Natale of the unsteady conditions of the Pope, discouraged by the unfavourable progress of and told him he had written a poem of more military events, since on 5th December 1757 than 300 lines on the recovery of the Pope; yet Charles Alexander of Lorraine was defeated in he confessed that the persistently awkward re- the battle of Leuthen and Frederick II regained lationships between France and the Holy See Silesia; Boscovich only wrote 144 lines of the were for him cause of embarrassment, since in second book, and the poem was published in the poem he had sung the triumph of Benedict its incomplete form in 1757 in Vienna. XIV over the issue with France, probably with After his return to Rome in the summer reference to the condemnation of Jansenism of 1758, Boscovich had to face the draft- reiterated in the Papal encyclical Ex Omnibus ing — we don’t know whether on commis- Christiani of 16th October 1756. Anyway, the sion or not — of a poem for the wedding poem Pro Benedicto XIV, extolling the life of Giovanni Francesco Correr with Adriana and conduct of the great Pope, was printed in Pesaro. Giovanni Francesco Correr was the January 1757; Boscovich delivered personally son of Pietro Correr, ambassador of the a copy of the poem to Benedict XIV. Serenissima Republic of Venice in Rome, When Boscovich arrived in Vienna, at the whom Boscovich had met in Vienna; in a let- invitation of Joseph II to settle the long- ter to Stefano Conti in January 1761, before standing problem of the waters, the Seven their journey to Constantinople, Boscovich Years’ War — between Prussia and its allies called him ‘ambassador Correr, my good mas- Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 47 ter and friend. The wedding was celebrated the Prince Charles Joseph de Ligne (1735- on 17th July 1758 and the poem was writ- 1814), Imperial Field-Marshal, with Helena ten in one go by Boscovich within few days Apollonia (1763-1815), Princess of the illus- and published around the end of July 1758, trious Russo-Lithuanian family Massalski, cel- with the title In Nuptiis Joannis Corrari et ebrated in Paris on 29th July 1779, was written Adrianae Pisauriae e nobilissimis Venetae in a very short timespan, as it was usual for Rep. Senatoriis Familiis, Carmen [Poem for Boscovich. We cannot dismiss the possibility the wedding of Giovanni Correr and Adriana that he was writing the poem during the pe- Pesaro from the most noble family of a senator riod, preceding or immediately following the of the Republic of Venice]. wedding, in which Ignazio Massalski — Jesuit In the second half of 1759 Boscovich be- and bishop of Vilnius in Lithuania, uncle of gan his long journeys to France, England, Princess Helena, whom Boscovich had met in Constantinople and then Austria; later he was Warsaw in 1762, and who had come to Paris in Italy, in Pavia, where in April 1764 began expressly for celebrating the wedding of his teaching mathematics; these engagements took niece — was a guest in Boscovich’s house. The him away from an orderly application of his topic and the aim of the poem was extolling poetic skill. Only in 1767 he offered himself the history of the two great families, Massalski for translating in Latin verse a sonnet writ- and de Ligne, ending with the narration of the ten by Count Tommaso Medini on the occa- events which led Ignazio Massalski to cele- sion of the recovery of Maria Theresa, struck brate the wedding of his niece. by smallpox. By the way, Boscovich himself In September of the same year 1779 — together with other more famous poets as Boscovich wrote and published a Latin poem Metastasio — wrote and published few Latin for the episcopal golden jubilee of Cardinal couplets on the same subject, addressing them Paul d’Albert de Luynes. Indeed in that month to Count Firmian. de Luynes celebrated in Sens the 50th an- During his stay in France, starting from niversary of his first appointment in 1729 1773, he tried his hand at poetry in Latin verse as Bishop of Bayeux, and on that occasion mainly by writing short poems of lyrical, ele- we have to presume that Boscovich read his giac and epigrammatic character, which have poem. However the relations between the two reached us only partially in his manuscripts or should have dated back several years, at least through his correspondence. In 1779, when he to the epoch of the election of Clement XIII was busy with the translation of his poem De in the Conclave of July 1758; in the follow- solis ac Lunae defectibus into French, presum- ing month, during a meeting of the Academy ably in Paris, Boscovich wrote and — accord- of Arcadia, Boscovich read some lines in ing to what he reports in his letters — pub- verse, addressed just to Cardinal de Luynes, lished two Latin poems: In nuptiis Principis de acclaimed member of Arcadia with the name Ligne cum filia Principis Masalski ad Sponsae of Ermodoro Liconeo. The common interest Patruum vilinense Episcopum [For the wed- in astronomy should have favoured meetings ding of Prince de Ligne with the daughter of among the two, as on the occasion of the ob- Prince Massalski, to the Bishop of Vilnius, servation of sunspots performed in the per- uncle of the bride] and Quinquagesimo exe- sonal observatory of the Cardinal in Noslon unte anno pontificatus E. Cardinalis Luyni near Sens in 1777. The friendly relations be- primum baiocensis episcopi tum Senovensis tween Boscovich and Cardinal de Luynes are Archiepiscopi ac Galliae et Germaniae pri- highlighted by two unpublished Latin poems, matis [For the fiftieth year of pontificate of preserved in the Boscovich collection of the Cardinal de Luynes, previously Bishop of Bancroft Library of Berkeley, which would de- Bayeux and then Archbishop of Sens and serve an in-depth study. Primate of France and Germany]. Very likely A further confirmation of the way in which the poem for the wedding of Prince Charles Boscovich was alternating the involvement in Antoine Joseph de Ligne (1759-1792), son of poetry with the scientific production is repre- 48 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters sented by his last four elegiac poem which he attached to her biography, adding: “Publ. in published in 1782-1785, in the same period in Paris et Rouen, 1784”, apparently neglect- which he was preparing the publication of the ing Sommervogel’s annotation on the likeli- most important of his scientific works, the five hood that the poem remained unpublished. On volumes of the Opera pertinentia ad Opticam the contrary Vladimir Varicak´ (1912), who et Astronomiam [Works pertaining to optics certainly knew Sommervogel’s Bibliothéque, and astronomy], whose last volume appeared states explicitly that this poem was not pub- in Bassano in 1785. lished anywhere. Actually the first 19 lines of On 24th October 1781 Boscovich, guest in Boscovich’s poem were published in the Esprit the mansion of the ex-Minister of the Navy des Journeax (Mai, 1781), and perhaps we de Boynes, was informed that Queen Marie are still missing a thorough search among the Antoinette had given birth on 22th to the publications of the Academy of Immaculate Dauphin Louis Joseph of Bourbon. On the Conception of Rouen and other coeval publi- same day he wrote in her honour an elegy in cations which could have contained the poem. 35 couplets and delivered it to Charles Gravier, By the way there is another enigma related to comte de Vergennes, who just in the same this work, since the manuscripts of the poem, year had been appointed Foreign Minister, on which a modern (1995) printed edition is and was a great patron of Boscovich. On 5th based, contains only 142 lines out of the 200 November Boscovich was in Sens, at Cardinal and more reported for its original reading at the de Luynes’; here, celebrating again the happy Academy of Rouen. event, completed the poem by adding other The last two poetic works by Boscovich of eleven couplets. The elegy, with the title In re- which we have news from the bibliographies centi ortu regii Galliae Delphini [On the oc- are those printed during the same period — casion of the recent birth of the Dauphin of from April 1783 to May 1785 — in which he the King of France], was printed during the was busy with the publication of the five vol- same night and distributed the following day, umes of the Opera pertinentia ad Opticam et together with a translation in blank verse by Astronomiam by the printing house of brothers Onorato Caetani. The previous year Boscovich Remondini in Bassano. At that epoch Bassano had written a Latin poem with the title Virgo del Grappa was a very lively city; it possessed sine labe concepta [Virgin conceived without a good tradition in the literary and poetic blemish], which he had offered to the Academy field in which were active, among the others, of Immaculate Conception, based in Rouen, the Jesuit Giambattista Roberti (1719-1786) during the public session of 21st December and Giacomo Vittorelli (1749-1835); Giuseppe 1780. According to a contemporary account, Remondini (1745-1811) had inherited from his the Latin poem was composed of more than father a big and famous printing house and was 200 lines, which Boscovich wrote in one go in managing it together with his brother Antonio the course of 24 hours. Sommervogel (1890), (1754-?) and his son Francesco (1773-1830). who was the first to catalogue this poem, re- In Bassano Boscovich, as we know from his ports that it was referred to in the Recueil letters, met Roberti and Vittorelli, whom he de piéces lues dans les séances publiques was friendly calling “magno vate” [illustrious de l’Academie etabli a Rouen sous le titre poet], and to whom he dedicated two graceful de l’Imm. Conception, pou les années 1776 epigrams in couplets. The following year — à 1781 (Paris et Rouen, 1784, 8◦), adding with Roberto Roberti, father of Giambattista, that “le poème du P. Boscovich n’est pas as editor — an unusual pamphlet written by reproduit, mais indiqué à la page 176. Il Giacomo Vittorelli for the wedding of count est donc probablement inédit”. Elisabeth Hill Francesco Pietro Brazza` with the countess (1961), resting on Sommervogel, makes ref- Giulia de’ Piccoli was printed, with a charm- erence to Boscovich’s poem in the catalogue ing Latin couplet added by Boscovich to each of the seven sonnets contained therein. Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 49

4.3. Boscovich’s didactic-scientific pects of his production which deserve fur- poetry ther investigation. His essay De Cometis dissertatio [Dissertation about comets] of 1746 Together with a considerable and wide po- is a demonstration of his observational activ- etic production of epic, lyric and epigram- ity and, as acknowledged by Boscovich him- matic character, Boscovich wrote also, as we self, is the starting point of all the following already said, a number of important works in works on the problem of cometary motion. In Latin in the field of didactic and scientific po- these works Boscovich is still forced to ac- etry, which enjoyed a similar or even greater cept the dogma of the immobility of the Earth success and appreciation. We mentioned al- but on the other hand, by demonstrating the ready Boscovich’s contribution (in 1746) to validity of Newtonian laws of motions, sur- the diffusion and understanding of the poetic reptitiously lays the foundation for overcom- works published by Carlo Noceti, dealing with ing that hypothesis. We must also note that the phenomena of rainbow and aurora bore- Boscovich was driven to write the De Cometis alis. Noceti’s work on the aurora borealis was dissertatio and to tackle the theoretical prob- published in 1747, equipped with Boscovich’s lem of cometary motion by the observations precious explanatory notes; to the same work of the passage of the great comet of 1743- Boscovich will dedicate — at an indetermi- 1744 he performed in Rome at the Collegio nate epoch, but probably about at the time of Romano. These observations were preceded in the publication of De Iride et Aurora Boreali June 1739 by the observation — again per- carmina — a sonnet in Latin couplets, entitled formed by Boscovich — of the passage of an- Ad Nicetam / Pro carmine de Aurora Boreali other comet, whose discovery is ascribed to [To Niceta, for the poem on the aurora bore- Eustachio Zanotti, astronomer from Bologna alis], presumably never published, in which he and nephew of the Arcadian poet Francesco extols Carlo Noceti and his work. To the Latin Maria Zanotti. Around the end of the same poem Boscovich adds another sonnet in Italian, year 1739 and the beginning of the next one, in which he summarizes the former, ending Boscovich observed the solar eclipse of 30th with the lines: Urania is astonished and deaf- December 1739 and the lunar eclipse of 13th ens the empty aether / shouting: Oh learned January 1740, both observed also by Eustachio tongue of Virgil / Oh great mind of the Sicilian Zanotti from Bologna; he reported these obser- Hero. vations to his brother Natale, sending him also If up to now the attention devoted by the the exact times of immersion and emersion and historians of science to the figure and the scien- other data about the solar eclipse. We must also tific activity of Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich mention that Boscovich participated actively in — apart from his production in the field of the observations of the solar eclipse of July natural philosophy — has been inadequate, 1748 and of the lunar eclipse of the follow- the consideration for his observational activ- ing month, performed in Rome by Boscovich ity has been almost non-existent, with the ex- himself, by Cristoforo Maire and by the fa- ception of recent work on his observations, thers Le Seur and Jacquir, and published in experiments and measurements related to ap- the “Giornale de’ Letterati”. During the same plied optics, spherometry and refractometry. year 1748 a new comet, designated 1748 I, was In fact Boscovich was also a skilled observer discovered and observed by Gian Domenico of astronomical phenomena: his observations Maraldi, who previously had observed also the of comets, of solar and lunar eclipses, of the solar eclipse of 25th July from Paris. We can- transits of Mercury on the Sun in 1737 and not exclude that the passage of this comet was 1753, the unsuccessful observation of the tran- the occasion in which Boscovich wrote the epi- sit of Venus in 1761, and his considerations gram Quid novus cometes protenda [What is on the meaning and cognitive value of ob- the new comet announcing], read in Arcadia servational activity and on the role of in- in 1748 and later translated by himself into struments in astronomic observations are as- Italian. On the other hand we can reasonably 50 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters suppose that when Boscovich was writing, in some of Borgondio’s papers. We can also a letter without date to his brother Bartolomeo, imagine that Boscovich took part in some way about the observations he was performing, with also in the observations of the lunar eclipses of “gran fastidio” [big trouble], on the occasion 1729 and 1732, performed by his master. of the passage of a comet, he was referring to As we said already, Boscovich was the great comet of 1743-1744, which he ob- prompted to write his Latin poems of the served up to March 1744; therefore we can years 1740s-1750s by the example of Carlo probably date back to this period his idea (ex- Noceti and Benedetto Stay, but there is no pressed in the same letter) of writing a poem doubt that the reference point for his first about comets, a project which, as far as we works in Latin verse, starting from his poem on know, he never realized. eclipses, were the Latin classics from Lucretius We can say therefore that Boscovich’s po- to Virgil rather than Noceti’s Iris of 1729 or etic works, written or announced, on the sub- Borgondio’s Latin poems. Certainly the argu- ject of comets are always related in some ment of his major poetic work was suggested way to an observational activity, performed by to Boscovich by the observations of solar and Boscovich himself or by others; on the con- lunar eclipses performed by him at the Collegio trary, much more complex is the relationship Romano, by the great importance and interest between his several observations of solar and for these phenomena throughout the scientific lunar eclipses, or his considerations on the community, and also by the fact they presented technique for determining the exact moment interesting and spectacular aspect for a wider of the end of a lunar eclipse — written in audience of learned public. As a matter of fact September 1744, after the observation of the Boscovich began to write the first lines of his lunar eclipse of November 1743 — and the ‘‘Poema degli Eclissi” [Poem on eclipses] al- long development of his vast and important ready in 1734, when he was teaching gram- poem on eclipses. mar and humanities in Fermo, one year be- As we have seen, starting from November fore the publication of his Carmina; he read 1729 Boscovich was following the class of about three hundred lines of the poem at the mathematics held at the Collegio Romano by Collegio Romano in November 1735, on the Orazio Borgondio; we can suppose that at that occasion of the opening of the academic year. epoch — if not earlier — Boscovich started In the preface contained in the manuscript of also an assiduous cooperation with his master, those lines of verse preserved at the Bancroft to whom above all he was indebted for the de- Library of Berkeley — the first draft of his velopment of his deep interest towards math- great poem on eclipses, to which in 1735 he ematics and astronomy. Around the midst of was giving the reductive title of De Solis, ac 1720s also Borgondio had shown, beside his Lunae defectibus Carmen [Poem on solar and commitment to theoretical mathematics, as- lunar eclipses] — Boscovich confirms that the tronomy and computation, a clear interest for stimulus to deepen and develop further the ar- observation activity, as it is demonstrated by gument of that first Carmen was the very shal- his observations of the solar eclipses of 25th low partial lunar eclipse of 2nd October 1735, September 1726 and 14th September 1727, which he had the opportunity to observe be- of the lunar eclipses of 7-8th August 1729 fore reading his verse at the Collegio Romano and 1st December 1732, and of the transit in November of the same year; this event re- of Mercury over the Sun of 11th November minded him of the line about solar and lu- 1736; by the way the essay De Mercuri no- nar eclipses (defectus Solis varios, Lunaque la- vissimo infra Solem Transitu [About the lat- bores) contained in Virgil’s Georgics, which est transit of Mercury under the Sun] in which have been the model for Boscovich’s poetic these observations are reported and which was production since his Carmina. published in Rome in 1737, is attributed by After these first lines Boscovich will write, Sommervogel to Ruggiero Boscovich, who in different stages and at different epochs, the probably was cooperating in the drafting of books of his big poem and will finish it, apart Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 51 from small corrections and additions, between the end of 1756 he was still writing and recit- the end of 1752 and the beginning of 1753. ing in Arcadia 78 new lines in Latin verse It seems that — we don’t know to what ex- in honour and in presence of Cardinals Landi tent — he was devoting to the drafting of and Albani. After that, as far as we know, his the poem also the time he could spare dur- many engagements in Lucca and in Vienna — ing his journeys by coach through the Papal where in 1757 he wrote the most famous of his State when, in 1751-1752, he was busy with works, the Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria — the measurement of the arc of meridian pass- and later, from the midst of summer of 1759, ing through that region. Boscovich will read his journeys to France and England, diverted several sections of the poem, after the lines him from taking due care of the most represen- declaimed in 1735, during the solemn assem- tative of his poetic-scientific work. Boscovich blies of Roman Arcadia, although the order of remained in France from the beginning of the lines, read on those occasions, in the fi- November 1769 to the midst of May of the fol- nal version of the poem does not correspond lowing year; in Paris, in March 1760, during with the order they had in the preliminary ver- one of the many meetings and parties to which sions, and with the order in which he was pre- he was invited, he met and became friend of senting them. For this reason it is difficult to M. Boulogne, uncle of Claude Henri Watelet, identify in the printed editions of De Solis ac man of letters and excellent poet, who volun- Lunae defectibus, either in the London edition teered to try and translate into French his poem of 1760 or in the Venetian edition of 1761, the on eclipses. It seems however that Watelet’s at- 47 lines of my first book of eclipses, written tractive proposal, after few trials of translation during Lent, which he anticipated to his brother of sections of the fifth book, did not produce Natale in a letter of 5th April 1746, few days any result. before Easter, and which he had read during Already while in Paris, Boscovich was con- the same Lent, probably in Arcadia. Again in sidering to publish his poem on eclipses in Arcadia he was planning to declaim everything England, but only after his arrival in London, in the correct order in 1753, when he had al- in June 1760, he started to think in earnest ready finished all five books of the poem but about printing his Latin poem which, in con- the second one; and on 26th December 1752 he sideration of his appointment as a member of sent to his brother Natale a small piece of the the Royal Society, he wished to dedicate to second book, which will appear as lines 486 – the Society itself. In a letter to his brother 524 of the printed volume. Again in Arcadia Bartolomeo of 12th June 1760, Boscovich ex- he read, at the end of 1756, a section following plains that among recent friends, including the enumeration of celestial bodies at line 207 the archaeologist James Stuart, he met John of the first book, consisting of 78 lines written Nourse, well-known bookseller and expert in in honour of Cardinals Francesco Landi and London literature, who put him in touch with Gian Francesco Albani, both illustrious mem- a dependable printer, whose name however bers of Arcadia with the names of Antistio Boscovich never mentions. After participating Trochio and Alcindio Elideo. It seems also that actively to the meetings of the Royal Society, in August 1758, again in Arcadia, Boscovich supporting the project of organizing campaigns read about 60 lines of verse in honour of his for the observation of the transit of Venus friend and patron Cardinal Luynes, as he wrote on the Sun of 6th June 1761, Boscovich met to his brother Natale on 22nd August 1758, but Lord Macklesfield, president of the Society, we don’t know whether these lines were ever and presented him the dedication in Latin of his published. poem on eclipses, addressed to him and to the At the beginning of 1753 Boscovich had al- Society. On 15th July he informed his brother most completed the drafting of the five books Bartolomeo that the printing process was going of his poem on eclipses, which — if we give to begin soon, and started to write the annota- credit to his own words — he read at the tions in Latin; however after three weeks the weekly meetings of Arcadia, even though at print had not started yet and he was complain- 52 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters ing about that with M. Nourse, ordering him to and of John Douglass, who will become later begin the job immediately, otherwise he would Bishop of Salisbury. have contacted other printers. After this discus- As a matter of fact Boscovich, probably en- sion with Nourse, Boscovich was away from couraged by this warm reception, was driven London for two weeks, during which he visited to consider the possibility of a new edition with great profit Cambridge University; upon of his poem. After his return to Italy, passing his return he was not satisfied with the work the through Verona on his way to Venice, he met printer had begun and broke off the relation- his friend Saverio Bettinelli, a brother in the ship with Nourse; thanks to the help of Charles Society of Jesus and an acknowledged poet; Morton, one of the secretaries of the Royal in a letter sent to Boscovich in April 1761, Society, and of Thomas Hollis, great supporter Bettinelli, making reference to the issues dis- of the idea of printing the book in England, he cussed during their encounter, volunteered to contacted other printers interested at his poem. look for a printer adequate for the publica- Boscovich does not mention the names of the tion of the poem. Finally De Solis ac Lunae new publishers or of the printer; however we defectibus was reprinted in Venice, from May know — from the cover of the London edi- to the midst of June, by the printer Antonio tion of De Soli ac Lunae defectibus — that the Zatta, we don’t know whether upon Bettinelli’s publishers were Andrew Millar and the broth- suggestion. Anyway Bettinelli, in a letter sent ers Robert and James Dodsley, among the most to Boscovich from Verona — a letter without appreciated London publishers of XVIII cen- date, but almost certainly written while Zatta tury, and the printer was William Bowyer, with was working at the reprint of the poem — con- whom Boscovich was later in correspondence. gratulated him for the choice of the printer and As a matter of fact the new printer started print- for the fact that the responsibility of the edition ing the first pages of the poem by the begin- had not been given to “Sig.r Pindemonti”, al- ning of September and finished it presumably most certainly Marcantonio Pindemonti, man around the end of December 1760, just before of letters from Verona, who had given hos- Boscovich left for Brussels, after having com- pitality to Boscovich during his stay in the pleted the notes of the poem and corrected the city; in the same letter Bettinelli also men- proofs. tioned a translation of the poem from Latin Without doubt the reception of Boscovich’s which should have been entrusted to the poet poem on eclipses, both in England and abroad, Pellegrino Salandri, but about which we do not was positive, as documented by the influen- have any further news. tial review and extended abstract published Almost twenty years later, when Boscovich on the Journal Etranger of July and August had been in France for more than five years, 1761. Since the book was an important trea- during a period of crisis of French finances, he tise on astronomy and physics and gave promi- was planning to publish all of his works writ- nence to the essential contribution of Newton ten in France dedicating them to King Louis in these two sciences, it was bound to meet XVI, with the purpose — as we understand with success among the scientific commu- from the letter he sent to his brother Natale on nity; it is worth noting, however, that it re- 17th December 1778 — of printing his works ceived a warm welcome also by the great at the expense of the Royal Printing House. literary critic and poet Samuel Johnson — In the same letter Boscovich writes he has in who wrote that Boscovich’s learning and talent preparation the translation in poetic prose of had “laboured Science into Poetry, and have my great poem on eclipses, with the original shown, by explaining Astronomy, that Verse Latin text and the French translation of text did not refuse the ideas of Philosophy” — and and notes. The poem had to be published to- by London literary circles gravitating around gether with the translation of his Philosophiae him, among which stood out, at the time in Naturalis Theoria and other three or four vol- which Boscovich stayed there, the figures of umes containing his latest works, mainly on the painter Joshua Reynolds, of Edmond Burke astronomy and optics. The French translation, Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters 53

“in prosa poetica”, of the poem, and of the nor poetic works by Boscovich in the frame- notes, was made — we don’t know precisely work of the production of didactic-scientific when — by abbot Augustin de Barruel, a for- poems in Latin verse in the second half of mer French Jesuit, who was tutor of two of XVIII century. We have already talked about the sons of Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony, Boscovich’s poetic production during his stay friend of Boscovich, at whose home in Point in France; he was recalling the most recent sur Seine Boscovich was often spending his part of this production in a letter to his young holidays, and where presumably he met abbot friend Francesco Puccinelli in July 1779, when Barruel. Since the printing of the translation he was starting the publication of Les Eclipses, of the poem started around the midst of June and was perhaps thinking of coming back to 1779, after the King had accepted the dedica- Italy. tion in Latin verse written by Boscovich, we We do not know of any didactic-scientific must think that Barruel made the translation work in verse of some importance written by during the first half of the same year. By the Boscovich during his stay in France. Therefore end of July 1779 the structure of the new ver- we have to acknowledge that De Solis ac sion of the poem was already defined and at the Lunae defectibus represents perhaps the high- end of November the poem had been printed in est attempt, together with the Newtonian poem six books; Boscovich could distribute the first by Benedetto Stay — to which by the way copies of it to his influential friends and ac- also Boscovich gave an important contribution quaintances in Paris, and was eager to person- — to popularize in Latin verse the new op- ally hand a copy to the King, which he man- tics and astronomy, based on the principles of aged to do before the Christmas holidays of the Newtonian physics. Within the same poem on same year. The poem Les Eclipses, printed at eclipses Boscovich tries once again — as he Boscovich’s expense, had a favourable recep- had already attempted to do in his De Cometis tion in spite of the “sedicenti filosofi” [self- in 1746 — to establish a fundamental harmo- styled philosophers] — how Boscovich was nization in order to uphold and explain the mo- complaining — in particular d’Alembert, who tion of the Earth in the framework of a new cos- anyway was not as influential as he used to mology, going beyond the Newtonian concep- be; however the progress of the sales of the tion of absolute, infinite and immovable space volume in France, about six months after its and introducing the idea of an interstellar space publication, was not so propitious. By the way in motion with respect to the absolute space, it is interesting to note that Boscovich had within which the motion of the Earth is pos- planned the French edition of his Latin poem sible; we can say therefore that also through on eclipses together with the translation, never his poetic works Boscovich contributed to the to be realized, of his Philosophiae naturalis defence and popularization, using the weapons Theoria as a mean to stimulate French read- available to him at that epoch, of the new ideas ers and entice them to accept also the rest of of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, in the his works, still written mostly in Latin and same way as he did with his scientific treatises filled with geometry and computations. The in prose. I think that also some of his poetic events connected with the French edition of works devoted to comets, which he presented the poem on eclipses reveal the subservient in Arcadia, should be considered in this per- character of this enterprise, which probably spective. In 1756 he read two Latin epigrams Boscovich had thought as a way to prepare the in Arcadia which will caused some interest ground for the publication in France of all of and which he will later insert, together with his works written in France, although mainly their Italian translation, in the first and third in Latin, which finally appeared in 1785 in book of De Solis ac Lunae defectibus; they the five volumes of the Opera pertinentia ad are “De Solis maculis” [On sunspots], and “In Opticam et Astronomiam. Anyway these con- planetarum dispositione Terra inter Martem, et siderations should not conceal the role played Venerem” [On the location of planet Earth be- by De Solis ac Lunae defectibus and other mi- tween Mars and Venus]. It turns out that the lat- 54 Proverbio: Boscovich, scientist and man of letters ter epigram, which Boscovich read in London other several poetic productions with didactic- in 1760 to his friends of Johnson’s literary cir- scientific character which underwent a flour- cle, was received with particular appreciation, ishing development in the second half of XVIII since Cornelia Knigth, who at the epoch was century. a child, writes in her autobiography: “His epigram on the planets is deservedly admired, as it scatters flowers on a subject which did not References appear susceptible of them”; in this statement Barbarisi, G. 1988, “Il letterato Boscovich”, she is clearly echoing memories of her parents, in Bicentennial commemoration of R. G. who knew Boscovich; she had met him in Paris Boscovich, Proceedings, M. Rossi and P. in 1776. Tucci eds., Milano, 149-170 The poem on eclipses is the most evident Carini, I. 1891, L’Arcadia dal 1690 al 1890, demonstration of the role Boscovich was as- Vol. I, Roma signing to the poetic means, not only a way for De Backer, A. & A. 1853, Bibliothèque communicating moods and emotions but also, des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, and above all, as an alternative way for spread- Première Série, Liege´ ing knowledge. He was a poet and, at the same Hill, E. 1961, “Roger Boscovich / A time, a scientist; these are the two, highly syn- Biographical Essay”, in Roger Joseph ergistic, aspects from which we have to ap- Boscovich, ed. Lancelot Law Whyte, preciate his works which today, quite incor- London rectly and simplistically, are labelled as poetic. Natali, G. 1955, Storia letteraria dItalia: Il For Boscovich the main problem related to Settecento, Parte prima, Quinta edizione, the usage of the poetic form, namely of verse, Milano, 219 was not the application of a stylistic canon, to Proverbio, E. 2013, Atti della Fondazione which nevertheless he was referring, but the in- Giorgio Ronchi, in press. spiration, that is the ability to convey in verse, Sommervogel, C. 1890, Bibliothèque de la in a genuine form and with the best style, infor- Compagnie de Jesus, second edition, Tome mation and knowledge. This is the criterion, I I, Bruxelles-Paris think, according to which today we must eval- Varicak,´ V. 1912, Drugi ulomak Boscoviceve uate and appreciate his poetic works, and the korespondencije, Zagreb