Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

foremost, the history of activities in this region has been under-investigated in previous
studies of eighteenth-century transits of Venus, particularly in literature written in French or
English. 5 The general impression gained from reading the international literature is that the
Venus transit projects of the 1760s were primarily French and British undertakings. We have
already witnessed Maximilianus Hell‟s substantial contribution to the Venus transit project of
1761. Considering the overarching theme of this part of the thesis – the eighteenth-century
transits of Venus and the role of Maximilianus Hell – a detailed analysis of activities in
Denmark and Norway in both 1761 and 1769 is required in order to contextualise the Vardø
expedition in 1769 (to be analysed in Chapter II.3). The story of activities in the Danish-
Norwegian kingdom cannot be properly understood, however, without taking the regional
dimension into account. Thus, this chapter will employ a comparative perspective, analysing
Venus transit activities in Sweden, Finland and Russia, as well as Denmark-Norway proper,
in both 1761 and 1769.
The elite ideology of the time measured an empire‟s „greatness‟ not only in its military
capacity and economic strength, but also in its participation in the intellectual and cultural
progress of the world. Beacons of the Enlightenment, like Voltaire, corresponded overtly with
sovereigns abroad, helping them to build up an image as „Philosophical Princes‟. Given the
widespread interest in the passages of Venus, and especially the rush of anticipation for the
second chance of determining the solar parallax in 1769, it was a matter of national pride to
be at the forefront of this international project. The nationality of the observer was not what
was at stake. As we shall see, Russia recruited astronomers from other countries for the year
1769. Their observations were nonetheless classified as “Russian”, for at the end of the day,
the sponsor received no modest share in the honour. Thus, when Denmark-Norway recruited a
man with the title of Imperial and Royal Astronomer of Vienna, his expedition was
5 Thus, while the activities of French and British astronomers are a recurrent theme in the 258-page monograph
of Woolf 1959, he has devoted only a few pages to Swedish (pp. 142-143 & 182), Danish (p. 144; pp. 176-178
on Hell‟s expedition) and Russian astronomy (pp. 144-145 & 179-181). The same applies to more recent works
by Maor 2000 (pp. 88-91 on Lomonosov; pp. 126-133 on Hell‟s expedition); Sellers 2001 (pp. 140-142 on Hell‟s
expedition); and Marlot 2004 (pp. 159-162 on Lomonosov; p. 168 on Hell‟s expedition); cf. the articles of
Chapman 1998 (not a word about activities in Fennoscandia), Verhas 2001 (a single sentence on expeditions in
Norway, Sweden and Russia 1761, a couple of sentences about Hell‟s expedition, but nothing about other
activities in Fennoscandia in 1769) and Hudon 2004 (Hell‟s expedition mentioned, but nothing about other
activities in Fennoscandia either in 1761 or 1769). Furthermore, the sets of articles edited by Brosche et al. in
1998 and Kurtz in 2005 encompass activities in several countries, but there is no word about Venus transit
activities in Fennoscandia (although the article of Marov in Kurtz 2005 is devoted to Lomonosov). It might also
be mentioned that the massive success of Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (1 st edn. 2003), has
four pages on the eighteenth-century transits of Venus, but elaborates only on British and French participants in
the project (Bryson 2004, pp. 79-82).
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