Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

For the broader picture of Jesuit science in the period, numerous studies that have been
published in recent years are of relevance. 14 For example, the outstanding anthologies The
Jesuits (1999) and The Jesuits II (2006), edited by John W. O’Malley in collaboration with
the above-mentioned Harris and other scholars, contain several articles on the history of Jesuit
science in early modern Europe. Particularly useful to grasp the general institutional
framework for Jesuit science is Harris’ own “Mapping Jesuit Science” in the first of these
volumes. Another fundamental work providing overviews of teaching and research by Jesuit
professors in the mathematical sciences in the German, French and Italian assistancies as well
as north-eastern parts of the Continent has been provided by Karl Adolf Franz Fischer
(catalogues published 1978, 1983 and 1984). However, Fischer does not venture beyond a
mere catalogue of ‘who were active where and when’, essential though that it is.
Despite my decision to use it in the subtitle of this thesis, I find the tag ‘Jesuit science’
somewhat problematic in the case of an astronomer firmly integrated in the European
Republic of Letters. On the one hand, Hell collaborated closely with several other Jesuit
astronomers. Thus, close collaboration between Hell and the Hungarian Jesuit Franciscus
Weiss has been demonstrated in the works of the Hungarian authors Ferenc Pinzger (two
volumes, published 1920-1927) and Magda Vargha (two volumes, 1990-1992), and the
equally important co-operation between Hell and the Jesuit Josephus Stepling in Prague has
recently been studied by the Czech astronomers Josef Smolka and Martin Šolc (2008). 15 On
the other hand, as Imperial and Royal Astronomer of Vienna, Father Hell did not confine
himself to cooperation with and publication of the observations of his confrères. Thus, the
historically oriented astronomer Konradin Ferrari d’Occhieppo (1907-2007) has described
Maximilianus Hell and his contemporary, the Benedictine abbot Placidus Fixlmillner of the
Cremifanum (Kremsmünster) Monastery, as “the founders of modern astronomy in Austria”.
The two even cooperated closely, he points out in an article published in 1957. 16 The
correspondence of Fixlmillner and Hell has since then been edited by the late director of the
14
Apart from examples mentioned elsewhere in this chapter, I should like to point to the studies of the role of
Jesuits in the transfer of learning between Europe and Asia by Antonella Romano 2000 and 2005; Harris 2005;
Catherine Jami 2004. See also the review article of Ditchfield 2007.
15
See also the study of Zdenĕk Horský (1970), who singles out his contacts with Weiss, Fixlmillner and Stepling
as especially important to Hell’s scientific career.
16
Ferrari d’Occhieppo 1957, article subtitled “Die Begründer der neueren Astronomie in Österreich”.
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