William Liest Readwin Cates

“ The vanity, egotism and petulance of Boscovich provoked his rivals and made him many enemies, so that in hope of peace he was driven to frequent change of residence. About 1770 he removed to Milan, where he continued to teach and to hold the directorship of the observatory of Brera; but being deprived of his post by the intrigues of his associates he was about to retire to his native place, when the news reached him (1773) of the suppression of his order in Italy. ”

“ On leaving England Boscovich travelled in Turkey, but ill-health compelled him soon to return to Italy. In 1764 he was called to the chair of mathematics at the university of Pavia, and this post he held, together with the directorship of the observatory of Brera, for six years. ”

“ BOSCOVICH, ROGER JOSEPH (1711?–1787) , Italian mathematician and natural philosopher, one of the earliest of foreign savants to adopt Newton’s gravitation theory, was born at Ragusa in Dalmatia on the 18th of May 1711, according to the usual account, but ten years earlier according to Lalande (Éloge, 1792) . In his fifteenth year, after passing through the usual elementary studies, he entered the Society of Jesus. On completing his noviciate, which was spent at Rome, he studied mathematics and physics at the Collegium Romanum ”