Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

The examples of Josephus Mayr and Nicolaus Boda in Graecium demonstrate that it was not
sufficient to have the infrastructure in place (official observatory, equipped with instruments,
run by a professor of mathematics), you also needed key personnel with proper training and
dedication, and with the right attitude towards interaction with peers in other places. Another
feature, illustrated through the careers of Boda and Tirenberger as well as Hell himself, is that
Jesuit astronomers could move between ecclesiastical and secular institutions – between ‘pure
science’ and mechanics.
The observatory in Tyrnavia has already been mentioned. 147 Given the mobility of Jesuit
scholars, who at least early in their careers tended to move around between various gymnasia
and collegia (in keeping with the motto docendo discimus, ‘we are learning by teaching’), it is
no great surprise that there were personal links between the observatory established in
Graecium in 1745 and the one constructed in Tyrnavia less than ten years later. Incidentally,
the rector of the University of Tyrnavia at the time when the observatory was built, Franciscus
Borgias Keri SJ (1702-1768) had previously studied and taught in Graecium. Keri published
various works on languages, history, physics and astronomy. He even acquired a reputation
for being the first – self-taught – producer of Dollond telescopes in Hungary. Keri may well
have been the initiator of the observatory in Tyrnavia. 148
The first director of the Tyrnavian observatory became Franciscus Weiss SJ (1717-1785).
Thanks to a set of primary sources edited by Magda Vargha in the 1990s his career is well
documented. 149 Born in Tyrnavia in 1717, Weiss entered the Society of Jesus in 1733 and
studied at the universities of Tyrnavia and Graecium. In the mid-1740s, he taught
“humaniora” at the University of Cassovia, and according to some secondary literature, even
at Jesuit gymnasia in Jaurinum and Scalis 150 (nearly 60 kilometres west of Trenchinium, on
the border with the present-day Czech Republic). It seems likely that he spent time at the
observatory during his student years in Graecium. By 1750, Father Weiss had in any case
147 The observatory was 110 Paris feet high (35,7 meters). On the ground floor there was a Musæum Chemicum,
on the first floor, a Musæum Physicum, on the second, a Musæum Astronomicum and finally, on the third floor
were the living rooms of the astronomical staff. Above the living rooms was the observatory itself, 18 feet high
and rectangular in shape, with a length of 56 feet and a width of 40 feet (see Weiss, “Observationes Astronomicæ
ad latitudinem, & longitudinem Tyrnaviensem inquirendam institutæ”, facsimile in Vargha 1992, appendix).
148 Steinmayr 2011, p. 247; Szerdahely 1785, p. 11 (facsimile in Vargha 1992, appendix).
149 The Correspondance de Ferenc Weiss. Astronome Hongrois du XVIII e siècle (two vols, 1990-92) contains
transcripts of numerous letters as well as some facsimiles, most notably the laudatio funebris by Georgius
Aloysius Szerdahely (Memoria admodum Reverendi ac Clarissimi Domini Francisci Weiss …Buda 1785).
150 Wurzbach, Vierundfünfzigster Theil (1886). Scalis (L) = Skalitz (G), Szakolcz (H), Szakolca (Sl).
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