``A masterly though neglected work'', Boscovich's treatise on conic sections (Q2413529)

The authors provide an illuminating look at Boscovich's 1754 work on conic sections, covering both technical and contextual aspects. Boscovich's work grew out of his interest in Newton's treatment of conics in the \textit{Principia}. In keeping with this tradition, Boscovich opted for a synthetic and purely planar treatment of conic sections (with conics defined in terms of focus and directrix). Boscovich's key innovation was the introduction of the eccentric circle (as it was later to be called). This tool enabled him to prove in a unified way many key propositions by relating constructions and properties of conics to their auxiliary eccentric circle. For example, an important result states that a certain ratio relationship of the segments of two intersecting chords of a conic depends only on the directions of the chords, not their position. This had already been recognised as a central unifying theorem before Boscovich, but the use of the eccentric circle made a simple, synthetic, planar proof possible for the first time. Because of its Newtonian bent, Boscovich's work was especially popular in England. However, it was often seen as primarily a didactic work and an introduction to Newtonian-style geometry. The way in which Boscovich unified and systematised the theory of conics was much in the spirit of 19th-century projective geometry, but this foreshadowing went largely unappreciated and was only noticed some time after these developments had already unfolded independently.