Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

The above-mentioned damages that have been inflicted upon [Practical?]
Astronomy by the destruction of my order [i.e., the Society of Jesus], are
however less grave than the fate that would have befallen the observatories that
once upon a time were erected by the Society, namely the ones in Bohemian
Prague, in Styrian Graecium and at the academic collegium in Vienna, in case I
had not – encouraged by [a hope?] that our Society will one day be brought back
to life – resisted it with all my might. For [you see?], there are enemies of the
Society and of the hard sciences who have been [trying to persuade] Her
Highness the Empress that these three observatories, which our Society once
erected and equipped, were worthy of being destroyed and demolished because
they allegedly were superfluous and thus extracting worthless funds for their
conservation. Enough worthless funds, they said, were already being spent on
the Imperial Observatory of Vienna and on the observatory in Tyrnavia, for “the
sole purpose of retaining reputation abroad”. And in order to eliminate
Astronomy along with the Jesuits, they claimed that astronomical observatories
were useless to rulers except for those who have a fleet at see or are engaged in
maritime trade; accordingly, since the lands subjected to Austria lack these
properties, the observatories were of no use, the astronomers were of no use and
all funds were unworthy of being wasted on Astronomy: as if Astronomy had no
use except for navigation!
The dominant ideology during Joseph II’s reign had little respect for the heritage of Jesuit
science. We have seen that although Maximilianus Hell lingered in Vienna, Josephus
Liesganig and Franciscus Weiss moved, to Leopolis and Buda respectively, upon orders from
the state. None of the three are likely to have been particularly welcoming to ‘new men’ in
astronomy; there were enough former Jesuits around to recruit for the few vacancies and new
offices that existed. However, in consideration of the fact that the former Jesuit observatories
in Vienna, Graecium and finally Tyrnavia were being closed down in the aftermath of 1773, it
would be harsh to subscribe to the verdict of Franz von Zach, that the nepotism of the ex-
Jesuits was the main problem: the only new facility for institutional astronomy that was
founded in the former Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus in the fifteen years following
the year 1773, was not financed by the state, nor by a representative of the ‘progressive
forces’ associated with the masonic lodges. Ironically, Carolus Eszterházy, the conservative
bishop of Agria appears to have been the only true patron of institutionalised astronomy in the
Habsburg lands during the post-suppression period.
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