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 ev- ident, 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.

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