Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

unpublished works on the subject he clearly rates Hell‟s data highly, though he fails to
mention on whose behalf this observer had travelled to Vardø. 163 However, when some of the
most authoritative periodicals of continental science published Hell‟s results – the Nova Acta
Eruditorum of Leipzig and the Journal des Sçavans and Journal encyclopédique of Paris – the
editors were careful to emphasise the identity of the sponsor. 164 The review in the Journal des
Sçavans even went so far as to state that: 165
Astronomy, which has owed so much to the King of Denmark from the
sixteenth century onwards, is on this occasion obliged to Him once more, for a
most meticulous and important voyage: this monarch could have made no better
choice than to employ Father Hell for this mission; we have had occasion more
than once to comment on how much this astronomer has been a credit to the
sciences, and this voyage is proof that his zeal equals his learning.
In similar terms, the Journal encyclopédique foresaw that “the success of this undertaking
[…] will serve to immortalise the glory of the Monarch”. 166 The prestige invested in the
expedition, then, paid off in a certain sense. King Christian VII, who is remembered primarily
as the mentally ill, indecisive marionette of manipulative figures at court, 167 on this occasion
received his share of praise as a supporter of the sciences. In fact, the historical significance of
his sponsorship of Father Hell‟s expedition was compared to the achievements of Tycho
Brahe, another client of the Danish kingdom. 168
163 Hornsby “The Quantity of the Sun‟s Parallax, as deduced from the Observations of the Transit of Venus, on
June 3, 1769” 1772. Extracts from a manuscript (“Radcliffe MS 7”) containing the details of Hornsby‟s
calculation is available on the web pages of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford,
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/venus/html/gallery/prints.htm (accessed 9 January 2008).
164 Hell 1770a2 (editor‟s foreword), pp. 1-2; Journal des Sçavans, Septembre 1770, pp. 619-622; Journal
encyclopédique, Mai 1770, pp. 344-352. For the role of international journals of general science in the Republic
of Letters, see for example Bots & Waquet 1997, pp. 132-133; 143-148.
165 Journal des Sçavans, Septembre 1770, p. 622: “L‟Astronomie qui eut dès-le 16 e siécle de si grandes
obligations au Roi de Dannemarck lui doit encore dans cette occasion le voyage le plus curieux & le plus
important; ce Prince ne pouvoit mieux choisir qu‟il n‟a fait en donnant au P. Hell cette mission; nous avons eu
occasion de remarquer plus d‟une fois combien ce célébre Astronome avoit bien mérité des Sciences; ce voyage
est une preuve que son zéle égale son sçavoir”.
166 Journal encyclopédique, Mai 1770, p. 345: “Le succès de l‟entreprise qui servira à perpétuer la gloire du
Monarque”. See also the widely-read afterword to the posthumously-published account of the expedition of
Chappe d‟Auteroche to Baja California, where the expedition of Father Hell is listed as one of the three most
important expeditions world-wide in the year 1769 (the other two being Chappe d‟Auteroche‟s and Captain
Cook‟s) and the skills of Father Hell are praised with the comment that “[l]e choix du Souverain Danois ne
pouvoit qu‟être digne d‟éloge dans cette occasion” = “the choice [of Father Hell] by the Danish Sovereign could
not be worthy of anything but praise on this occasion” (J.-D. Cassini, “Histoire abrégée de la parallaxe du soleil”
1772, pp. 150-151, here p. 151).
167 For his biography, see now Langen 2008 (in Danish).
168 The reference to Tycho Brahe is implicit in the review in Journal des Sçavans, quoted above, and virtually
explicit in the dedication to the King in Hell‟s Observatio Transitus Veneris (1770a1, pp. [i]-[vi]).
- 266 -