Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

as regards its suitability for literature. 323 These patriotic remarks, although formulated in
Latin, resemble the ideology of a text in the Hungarian language that was published two years
later, by the Hungarian-guard member Georgius (György) Bessenyei. With his pamphlet, the
littérateur Bessenyei wanted to “prove that the Hungarian language was suitable for the very
highest literary genre”. 324 As interpreted by Benedict Anderson and other historians of
nationalism, this event marked the “birth of Hungarian nationalism”. 325 The role of the
Demonstratio in this process is ambiguous. One may conclude, however, that it was not only
the Latin language that Father Hell promoted, he also tried – at least during the early years of
the 1770s – to benefit from a current of pro-Magyar sentiment by supporting the patriotic
study of Hungarian. This strategy did not work out well. The Demonstratio was ridiculed and
held against Hell by Born and his circle in the 1780s, and even the leading intellectuals of the
Hungarian Guard – Bessenyei among them – spoke against its main thesis. 326
It is said in the catalogues of the Society of Jesus that Hell mastered “Slavic” (probably
Slovak) and that he used this language during mass in Claudiopolis. One may infer that he
also used it in Leuchovia. However, there is nothing in the primary sources that I have had
access to that suggests that Hell played a role in the codification of Slavic languages of the
Kingdom of Hungary, which was taking place during eighteenth century, a process in which
several Jesuits of his generation took part. 327 Far more marked is his use of that highly
ambiguous language, German.
After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, Hell published far more works in German than
he had done before this watershed. His issuing of German-language almanacs around 1775
has been mentioned above. In the same period, he also published numerous articles in
German-language newspapers, journals and books. These publications of Hell’s treated in part
astronomy, in part other subjects such as medicine.
323 For example Sajnovics 1771, p. [xiv]: “per tot secula egregie exculta, seu ubertate vocabulorum, seu concinna
brevitate, seu intimos animi sensus explicandi dexteritate, nulli Orientalium, aut Occidentalium Linguarum
inferior, multis autem certe superior evasit [scil. lingua Ungarorum]” = “[the language of the Hungarians,]
splendidly cultivated through so many hundreds of years, has emerged as inferior to no other language, be it
eastern or western, as regards its richness of vocabulary, its elegant succinctness or its suitedness to express the
inner emotions of the human soul. Indeed, in these respects it is superior to many other languages”.
324 Paul Ignotus, in the work Hungary from 1972, as quoted by Anderson 2006, p. 73.
325 Ibid.
326 See Kontler 2011 & in press.
327 See Kamusella 2009, pp. 99-139.
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