Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

in no small measure thanks to the charismatic leadership of Ignatius a Born, or Ignaz Edler
von Born (1742-1791). His career merits some consideration.
The son of a “Stadthauptmann” (appointed major) in Alba Julia 286 in Transylvania that had
been known as a promoter of gold mining in that region, Ignatius a Born was to pursue a
career in mineralogy, chemistry and mining. After an initial post in Prague, where he became
the founding father of a private Society of Sciences in 1770, Born came to Vienna in 1776 for
the task of rearranging the “Naturaliencabinett” of the Empress. 287 Three years later, he
became a senior official of the bureaucracy overseeing the mining industry. 288 In 1782, Born
joined the lodge Zur wahren Eintracht with his wide circle of friends. He soon became a
leader of the lodge and ultimately (1784) even the “Großsekretär” (main secretary) of the
Austrian lodges. Seeing itself as a sort of “substitute academy”, Zur wahren Eintracht founded
a scientific journal (Physikalische Arbeiten der einträchtigen Freunde, Vienna 1784-85) and
promoted a wide range of other scientific, political and belletristic activities. In science, Born
is primarily remembered for his invention of an improved method for amalgating silver
(1784) and as the initiator of the above-mentioned international gathering for metallurgists,
miners and natural historians in Glashütte, not far from Hell’s hometown Schemnicium
(1786). In matters of religion and culture, however, Ignatius a Born is known as a satirist and
a champion of anti-clerical views. He is claimed by many to be the model for the character
Sarastro in Schickaneder’s and Mozart’s Zauberflöte (‘Magic Flute’, 1791).
Born had in fact been a member of the Jesuit order for sixteen months, in 1759/60, but left the
Society before he finished his novitiate. His main work as an anticlerical satirist was issued in
1783 under the pseudonym Joannes Physiophilus, with the title Specimen Monachologiae,
methodo Linnaeano, tabulis tribus aeneis illustratum (also published in German and French,
and in English as ‘John Physiophilus’s Specimen of the Natural History of the Various Orders
of Monks, after the Manner of the Linnæan System’). 289 The book is jokingly cast as an
academic treatise of natural history, in which the various monks are distributed in their
species and described according to Linnæan terminology as though they were specimens of
natural history. Thus, the genus of the monk is in general terms defined as an “animal” that is
286 Alba Julia (L) = Weissenburg or Karlsburg (G), Gyulafehérvár or Károlyfehérvar (H), Alba Iulia (R).
287 The Naturaliencabinett was a predecessor of the present Naturhistorisches Museum.
288 In German: “Hofrat(h) bei der Hofkammer im Münz- und Bergwesen”.
289 The Latin original is available on Google Books, see [Born] 1783. Most researchers identify the pseudonym
Joannes Physiophilus with Ignatius a Born. See however, Evans 2006, p. 46 footnote 35.
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