Programska knjižica - Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo

interpretirani, važno je napomenuti kako su ovdje sačuvani u autografu, dok
su u rukopisima koji se nalaze u Hrvatskoj dostupni, koliko je poznato, samo
u prijepisima.
U svemu, kako zbog velikoga broja dosad nepoznatih djela braće Ruđera
i Bara te sestre Anice Bošković, tako i zbog mnogih sačuvanih autografa i
‘radnih verzija’ koje svjedoče o Boškovićevu književnome stvaranju, a osobito
zbog činjenice da se Boškovića kao latinskoga pjesnika dosad nije dovoljno
proučavalo i vrednovalo, riječ je o ostavštini koja zaslužuje pomno i iscrpno
književnopovijesno proučavanje i kritičku analizu.
Ključne riječi: Ruđer Bošković, Bancroft Library, rukopisna ostavština, latinsko pjesništvo,
Anica Bošković, Baro Bošković
POETRY IN BOŠKOVIĆ’S MANUSCRIPT LEGACY
AT THE BANCROFT LIBRARY OF THE BERKELEY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Since 1962 Bancroft Library of the Berkeley University of California has
been housing a voluminous manuscript legacy of Ruđer Bošković, which consists
of his many scientific works, correspondence, notes, poetry, documents,
and diary fragments. This collection includes material in Italian, Latin, French,
English and Croatian, and to a somewhat lesser extent, printed editions as well
as texts of other authors. According to the categorisation carried out on the
basis of Branimir Truhelka’s method of archive classification while the legacy
was still part of a private collection in Dubrovnik, the first series, the content of
which is described as “Scientific Papers. Belles Lettres 1735–1773, undated”,
includes Bošković’s writings in the field of astronomy, philology, philosophy,
geodesy, hydrography, mathematics, mechanics, optics, theology, and at the
very end, poetry. The latter is classified in 56 items, between the numbers 126
and 185. It is noteworthy that this poetic legacy has been unstudied until now,
its content being virtually unknown in Croatia.
The manuscripts of the poetic texts, many of which are Bošković’s autographs,
may provisionally be divided into several groups. One group would
include his occasional poems – mostly elegies and epigrams – dedicated to
European sovereigns and other distinguished figures, e.g. to Duke Xavier of
Saxony, Polish king Stanislaw, Empress Maria Theresa, King Louis XVI etc.;
some of the verse the author composed as member of the Academy degli Arcadi
or professor at the Collegium Romanum. The second group includes subsequently
written extemporal epigrams in Latin, which Bošković composed
142