Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

In Norway, there was also a Society of Sciences, based in Trondheim, the northernmost town
of Denmark-Norway at the time. The Trondheim Society, which was established in 1760 and
granted a Royal epithet in 1767, has had its history described in a recent work in English by
Håkon With Andersen, Brita Brenna, Magne Njåstad & Astrid Wale, Aemula Lauri: The
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, 1760-2010 (2009). 26 However, astronomy
was never a main issue in the early history of this Society, whose founding fathers focused on
natural history, agriculture and history. Thus, although earlier works on the history of the
Trondheim Society include some material from Hell’s expedition, those documents are not
concerned with the astronomical programme of the expedition. 27
When turning to the history of Swedish (including Finnish) astronomy, works of amongst
others the prominent professors of history of science Sten Lindroth (1914-1980) and Sven
Widmalm provide good vantage points, as do the pioneering works of Nils Victor Emanuel
Nordenmark (1862-1967) and the more recent contributions by Päivi Maria Pihlaja and
Mathias Persson.
In the third volume of his grand synthesis Svensk Lärdomshistoria (‘History of Swedish
Learning’), Lindroth treats the period from 1719 to 1772, or the so-called ‘Age of Freedom’
in Swedish history (Frihetstiden, 1978). All institutions of science and higher education in the
entire expansion of the Swedish realm are described, including the Royal Swedish Academy
in Stockholm and its secretary, the above-mentioned astronomer Pehr Wargentin. In fact,
Wargentin’s international network and his decisive role in the Swedish participation in
international research projects, including the transits of Venus, are among the topics treated at
length in Lindroth’s book. The same author had already treated Wargentin and the Venus
transits in the first volume of his ‘History of the Swedish Academy of Science’ (in Swedish,
1967), although the wider scope of the ‘Swedish Learning’ furnishes the reader with an even
broader picture of the period.
no further than Dønnes, this place is still within the region of North Norway. Besides, the Copenhagen professor
Kratzenstein travelled to Trondheim where he unfortunately failed to observe the transit due to clouds (see
chapter II.2 for details).
26 In this work, Brita Brenna has written the chapter on the eighteenth century. See also her article “Dilettantism
and Discipline: The learned milieu around the establishment of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences” (in
Norwegian, 2011) and Monica Aase & Mikael Hård, “‘The Norwegian Athens’: Trondheim as a town of
learning during the second half of the eighteenth century” (in Swedish, 1998).
27 See especially the works of Ove Dahl on the founding father Gunnerus, published 1892-1911.
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