Bidspirit auction | [HISTORY] - BOSCOVICH Roger Joseph

[HISTORY] - BOSCOVICH Roger Joseph (Dubrovnik, 1711 - Milan, 1787) - “Boscovich on Lenses and Telescopes — The True First Issue” - BOSCOVICH, Roger Joseph. De lentibus et telescopiis dioptricis dissertatio. Rome, Antonio de Rubeis, 1755. 4to. (270 x195 mm) 58 pp., [1] leaf of errata. With one large folding engraved plate. 20th-century vellum. True first edition, first issue, published by Antonio de Rubeis in Rome in 1755. In the same year a second issue appeared, with the addition of Luigi Leonori’s name on the title-page and a portrait of St. Aloysius (San Luigi Gonzaga). This important dissertation represents one of the most consolidated results of Boscovich’s lifelong research into the theory and practice of dioptric lenses and telescopes. A polymath Jesuit scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711–1787) was among the first on the Continent to adopt Newtonian celestial mechanics. He later designed and supervised the construction of the Brera Observatory in Milan (1765), one of Europe’s foremost centers of astronomy in the Enlightenment. A fine, complete copy in perfect condition, with the large folding engraved plate present. A cornerstone work of eighteenth-century optics, here in its rare and desirable first issue, preceding the variant with Leonori’s name and the portrait of St. Aloysius Gonzaga.