Boško Bošković, father of Nikola Bošković, was mentioned in the document from 1690 ("Bosikus Boscouich de Popouo mihi cancellario optime notus") from which is evident that family surname Bosković is much older and was surname of his ancestors long time before they arrive to Dubrovnik.[5]
His travels through "Raška" (Old Serbia) were written down by a Jesuit priest Riggeputti as Relazione della Provincia della Rassia, who was collecting material for his work Illyricum Sacrum, a history of Christianity in the Balkans. Bošković described the historical and sacral monuments of Raška including Orthodox monasteries and royal palaces, and also commented on the "sad state" of the Roman Catholic Church in these lands under the Ottoman rule.[7] After settling down in Dubrovnik, Nikola married a daughter of a local noble of Italian origin, Paola Bettera (Pavica Betera). The two had eight children, the second youngest, Ruđer Bošković (Roger Boscovich), being the most famous.[citation needed]
Origin debate
There is a debate on the ethnicity and origin of Nikola Bošković.
An English translation of Bošković's "Theory of Natural Philosophy" was published by the Open Court Publishing Company in 1922, prefaced by Branislav Petronijević's biography of Bošković.[9] In 1925, Vladimir Varićak published a review of
it, and criticized it extensively for various factual errors, among other things for asserting without references that the Bošković family was "of purely Servian origin", that Boško was "an orthodox Serbian peasant" and that Nikola became "a Roman Catholic" in Dubrovnik.[10]
In 1995, a Montenegrin author named Slobodan Šćepanović published an article in the journal of the Institute of History of Montenegro where he claimed, based partly on "oral history", that Nikola Bošković converted to the Catholic faith from Orthodoxy, and that he was a descended from a Montenegrin clan.[6][11]
According to Serbian sources, the Bošković brotherhood, originally surnamed Pokrajčić, had settled the village from the surrounding mountains of Popovo.[12] Branches of the brotherhood also settled the surroundings of Stolac.[13]
In 2012, the Serbian newspaper Press published an article claiming Nikola Bošković was a Serb, based partly on Serbian president Boris Tadić's claims that Ruđer Bošković was a "Serb Catholic".[14] Croatian academics lambasted such claims, with Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts members saying Tadić "needed to learn something", and another saying it was beneath him to even comment on such a statement.[15]
^Šćepanović, Slobodan (1995). "O porijeklu porodice i korijenima predaka Ruđera Boškovića". Istorijski Zapisi (in Serbian). 3. Podgorica, Montenegro: Istorijski institut Crne Gore: 143–157.
^Jeremija D. Mitrović (1992). Srpstvo Dubrovnika. Srpska književna zadruga. p. 124. ISBN9788637903192. Преци Руђера БошковиЬа прво су као властела носили презиме ПодкравиЬи односно Покра]чиЬи. Рано су се спустили у Попово поље, у село Орахов До или Орахово, где су се размножили као Бошкови- Ьи. Из 1629. сачувана је једна изјава људи написана „т сагаНеге ПНпсЬо оуего 8етапо" (српским пи- смом). Из овог херцеговачког српског ...
^Историски записи. Vol. 68. с.н. 1995. p. 154. огранака братства БошковнЬа у Орахов До и околицу Гтоца, што )е утврЬено, као што смо вищ'ели, на основу тамоииьег предала н других извора. Исто тако, правац иселзаван.а, куда су сс креталп при селидби, ко)а су усмеренъа ...