Programska knjižica - Hrvatsko filozofsko društvo

VLADIS VUJNOVIĆ 1 , INGA LISAC 1 , IVICA MARTINOVIĆ 2
1
Geophysical Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University
of Zagreb, Croatia /
Geofizički odsjek, Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu,
Hrvatska
2
Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia /
Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMENTARY
OF BOŠKOVIĆ’S DISSERTATION DE AURORA BOREALI (1738)
Between his studies of philosophy and theology, Ruđer Bošković worked
for six years as a magister in the lower classes of the two Jesuit colleges: in
Rome and in Fermo, but in addition to his regular teaching duties, from 1736
he embarked upon the research and publishing of the treatises in mathematics,
astronomy and meteorology. The fruit of such scientific interest is the treatise
De aurora boreali, which Bošković submitted to the academic public on two
occasions, first in August 1738 at the Roman Seminary (in Seminario Romano),
and at the Roman College (in Collegio Romano) the following month, shortly
before he began his studies of theology. Based on Martinović’s translation of
the treatise De aurora boreali into Croatian, it is interpreted and commented
from the perspective of the history of science (Martinović) and from the standpoint
of the physics of the atmosphere (Vujnović and Lisac).
In constructing the treatise, young Bošković followed the scientific style
of his professor of mathematics Orazio Borgondio, who at the Collegium Romanum
published treatises with the same text organisation from 1713 to 1734:
division into propositions and corollaries. By that time Bošković zealously
read Newton’s Opticks, the latter’s first Latin edition from 1706, for in the
treatise he cited Query 20, where Newton concludes that “the density of air
is proportional to the force compressing it”. He rightly leaned on Mairan’s famous
treatise Traité physique et historique de l’Aurore Boréale, first published
in 1731 in the Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris, and two
years later in a separate book. Bošković used the method that Mairan applied
for the calculation of the aurora height which appeared on 19 October 1726,
and borrowed also two of his drawings, adapting them to his conclusions and
calculations. For the appearance of aurora borealis on 16 December 1737, he
drew on the report Observatio Aurorae Borealis, visae nocte insequenti diem
XVI. Decembris, Anno 1737 by Giovanni Poleni, professor of mathematics at
the University of Padua, published in Venice in 1738 together with four other
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