CROATIA, 1943, Scott 59-60

   

   
1943, four imperforate trial color proofs of each value were printed

Roger Boscovich, born in what is now Dubrovnik, Croatia, was an astronomer, mathematician, physicist, geometer, and philosopher, a Fellow of the British Royal Society, and a priest of the Society of Jesus. He studied and worked mostly at the Roman College. After the Suppression of the Jesuits, he was invited by King Louis XV of France to become Director of Optics for the Marine, an office established for him personally. Toward the end of his life he returned to Italy to publish five volumes of his yet unpublished works. Boscovich was the first to work out a scientific approach to an atomic theory. Widely recognized in his day, he received numerous honors and was elected to prestigious societies. He specialized in solar eclipses and designed the Brera Observatory in Italy — both elements included in one of his stamps. It was his personal credibility that moved Pope Benedict XIV to remove Copernicus from the Index of Forbidden Books. More

Honoring the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great Croatian scholar and Jesuit Rudjer Boškovic, the Croatian Parliament proclaimed the year 2011 as the Year of Rudjer Boškovic at the national level. On June 4, 2011 during his visit to Croatia, the Pope Benedict XVI declared: "(Boscovich)... plays very well the happy marriage between faith and science, which stimulates each other in a search open, diversified and capable of summary at the same time... we pay tribute to the illustrious Croatian, but also to the authentic Jesuit."

Once on every sheet of the above stamps (position 73) the engraver, Karl Seizinger,
put an "S" as his secret mark on the palm of Boscovich's right hand.
He did the same with an engraving of the main square of Olomouc.

 
YUGOSLAVIA, 1960, Scott 595

   
YUGOSLAVIA, 1987, bicentenary of his death, Scott 1834 perf and imperf , and special cancel

CROATIA, 2006, the 150th anniversary of Nikola Tesla presents us with an odd connection to Boscovich, Scott 626
The stamp is based on George Grantham Bain’s 1901 photo entitled:
Nikola Tesla, with Rudjer Boscovich's book Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis,
in front of the spiral coil of his high-frequency transformer at East Houston Street, New York.

"The Republic of Serbian Krajina Government-in-exile," 2009

The Republic of Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serbian-dominated entity within Croatia during the 1990s. Established in 1991, it was not recognized internationally. Its main portion was overrun by Croatian forces in 1995; a rump remained in eastern Slavonia under United Nations administration until its peaceful reincorporation into Croatia in 1998. The Republic of Serbian Krajina Government-in-exile ("RSK") is a self-proclaimed government in exile for the Republic of Serbian Krajina. In early 2007, a motion by the EU subcommittee on the Balkans called for the "dissolution" of the RSK phantom government. The Parliamentary sub-committee stated that the phantom government had "no leg to stand on.". Nevertheless they continued to issue cinderella stamps and souvenir sheets, such as that above with images of Boscovich, this one to mark the Europa issue for 2009 on Astronomy.

 
BOSNIA (Croat), 2011, honoring Boscovich's 300th anniversary, Scott 251
FRANCE, personalized stamp from phil@poste

   
VATICAN CITY and CROATIA, 2011, a joint issue to honor the tercentenary of Boscovich's birth with FDI cancels, Scott Vatican 1482
Boscovich was papal adviser of Benedict XIV for all important technical issues, including the strengthening of the cupola of Saint Peter (shown above) in 1742.

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