Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

Kremsmünster Observatory, Father Ansgar Rabenalt (1911-1994), whose work corroborates
the conclusions drawn by Ferrari d’Occhieppo. 17
‘Central Europe’ poses another problem. I use it for the former Kingdom of Hungary and
Austria proper, more or less as a synonym for the Provincia Austriae of the Jesuit order.
However, the word “Austria” can also be used in a less restricted sense, to extend to the entire
Habsburg Empire. 18 Hell’s collaboration with numerous other astronomers both within the
Habsburg lands and beyond, emerges from the letters edited by Pinzger in the 1920s and
Vargha in the 1990s. In a recent article, I have analysed the contacts between Hell and French
astronomers, in particular Jérôme de Lalande (in French, 2010). However, none of the works
mentioned analyses how Father Hell’s – mainly Jesuit – network influenced his role in the
Venus transit project of 1761, during which year he stayed in Vienna. Harry Woolf, for his
part, mentions Maximilianus Hell as one of the most “distinguished names” in a “German-
speaking group” of Venus transit observers in 1761, but says nothing about Hell’s activities as
a ‘networker’, actively encouraging, coordinating and publishing the observations of others,
both within the Habsburg empire and beyond. 19 The term “German-speaking group”,
furthermore, does not render justice to the multi-linguistic Kingdom of Hungary, which – as
we shall see – remained important to Hell’s identity throughout his life.
No other study that I am aware of has analysed the extent to which Father Hell and other
Central-European Jesuits were integrated in the international Venus transit projects of the
1760s. Chapter II.1 of this thesis, on ‘The 1761 Transit of Venus and the Role of
Maximilianus Hell’, aims to fill that gap in the literature.
I.1.1.3 STUDIES OF THE NORDIC COUNTRIES AND THE EIGHTEENTH-
CENTURY TRANSITS OF VENUS
With the Vardø expedition of 1768-70 Maximilianus Hell entered for a while the service of
the King of Denmark and Norway, conducting prestigious observations on behalf of this
sovereign. He also entered a region, namely ‘Lapland’, as the northernmost parts of Fenno-
17 Rabenalt 1986. Extracts of several of these letters were edited already by Pinzger 1927 (cf. Unprinted Sources,
1a and 1b), but Rabenalt appears to have been unaware of that publication.
18 See Klingenstein 1997 for an illuminating discussion of the shifting historical meanings of the word
Österreich (‘Austria’).
19 See Section II.1.5 for details.
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