Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

around the mid-eighteenth century. The overall aim of this subsection, then, will be to
investigate the new conditions for astronomical activity in the former Austrian Province of the
Society of Jesus from 1773 to 1792.
The observatories will again be used as starting points. Apart from the university observatory,
or Imperial and Royal Observatory of Vienna that was run by Maximilianus Hell, we shall
investigate the plight of Jesuit observatories that had either been constructed, or were planned
to be constructed, in Vienna, Claudiopolis, Buda, Graecium and Tyrnavia. Included in the
story are developments in institutionalised astronomy at other places, namely in Leopolis,
Mellicum, Lambachum and Agria. In all these places, ex-Jesuits had a role to play. The career
of Franz Xaver von Zach is finally introduced, as an example of a Central-European
astronomer without a Jesuit background. First of all, however, a historiographical remark is
necessary.
Horst Kastner-Masilko, in his biography of Hell’s successor Triesnecker (published 2005)
concludes that “the dissolution of the Jesuit order had almost no impact on the work at the
Vienna Observatory”. 350 The expert on the ex-Jesuits of Austria in the period in question,
Hermann Haberzettl, concludes on a similar note: 351
a quite special ‘favourite pet’ in the scientific activity of the Jesuit order was
astronomy. In this discipline, no change took place in the wake of the
suppression. The status of the ex-Jesuits remained unchallenged.
In contrast to these statements stands Hell’s frequent laments on the Society’s suppression,
such as this one from 1790: 352
350
Kastner-Masilko 2005, p. 47: “Die Auflösung des Jesuitenordens hatte fast keine Auswirkung auf die Arbeit
der Wiener Sternwarte”.
351
Haberzettl 1973, p. 196: “Ein ganz besonderes Lieblingskind der wissenschaftlichen Betätigung des
Jesuitenordens war die Astronomie. In diesem Fach änderte sich durch die Aufhebung nichts. Die Stellung der
Exjesuiten blieb unangefochten”.
352
Hell 1790, pp. 301-302: “Hac enim Dissolutione SOCIETATIS JESU effectum est, ut officii mei Astronomici,
& laborum meorum Astronomicorum Sociis & Adjunctis, quos SOCIETAS JESU suis Sumptibus
aluerat, omnibus prorsus destitutus, & penitus privatus fuerim, mihique uni & soli tam annuæ Ephemerides
Astron[omicæ] calculandæ, & typis edendæ, quam observationes Astron[omicæ] instituendæ, peragendæ, &
continuandæ, quam etiam Commercium litterarium cum Astronomis totius Europæ (imo & cum Pekinensibus in
Sinis) habendum, omnesque reliqui labores Astronomici, sine Sociis, & Adjunctis, soli & unico perficiendi
fuerint. // His in temporum angustiis, nihil mihi aliud deliberandum superfuit, quam aut officio Astronomi Cæs.
Regii valedicere, si nempe promissum EXPEDITIONI MEÆ LITTERARIÆ vastum, in tribus Tomis
conscribendum Opus absolvendum vellem: aut, Opus hoc supprimendum, si scilicet, officium Astronomi (quo
stante SOCIETATE JESU, adjutus laborum Sociis, fungebar) porro continuandum decernerem”.
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