Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

effectively withdraws the invitation. 22 I have not come across other plans of Venus transit
expeditions involving Jesuit astronomers prior to September 1767.
As for other possible inviters of Father Hell, one might as well proceed by using the method
of elimination. Sweden is not likely to have invited foreign observers, since the Swedish
Academy of Science had sufficient personnel within its own ranks and on top of that was
reluctant to invite foreigners for patriotic reasons; 23 nor is France, for similar reasons; and as
for Britain, Maximilianus Hell was not a fellow of the Royal Society and is not known to have
been in personal contact with British astronomers prior to 1769. 24 Further possible sponsors
asking the Viennese court astronomer to travel to faraway territories would be Portugal or
Spain, but the fact that the expulsion of the Jesuits from their lands took place in June-
September 1759 and February-April 1767 respectively makes such an invitation highly
unlikely. What is more, no Catholic power still favoring the Jesuit order – Austria included –
is known to have organised any Venus-transit expeditions whatsoever in 1769.
22 Morton to Boscovich in Pavia, dated London 12 May 1767 (in Tolomeo 1992, pp. 320-321).
23 A remark in the application for funding to the Swedish King (compare Section II.2.1) is especially revealing.
Here, Wargentin states that (quoted from Nordenmark 1939, pp. 375-376): “Allernådigste Konung! Skickelige
Män där til äro hos oss at tilgå, men medel til deras utrustande, när den tiden kommer, och til så många
Instrumenters anskaffande, vet Academien inga, utan nödgas nu strax bekänna för de utländska Academierne sin
oförmögenhet at i detta mål fullgöra deras åstundan, på det de i tid må vara betänkte, at sielfve hitsända några
Astronomer […]. Eders Kongl. Majestets höga ynnest för Vetenskaper, Nåd för Des Academie och ömhet om
Rikets heder vid et så besynnerligt tilfälle, torde ei tillåta Academien at göra för Utlänningar en sådan
bekännelse om sin oförmögenhet […]” = “Most gracious King! Able men are to hand in our country, but the
Academy possesses no funding either for their travel gear, when that time comes, or for acquisition of the
necessary number of instruments. Instead, the Academy will some day soon be forced to admit to the foreign
academies its inability to fulfil their wishes in this matter, so that the foreign academies may have the time to
consider dispatching some astronomers to us themselves […]. His Royal Majesty’s great care for the sciences,
His grace for His Academy and care for the honour of His kingdom in such an extraordinary case, would hardly
allow the Academy to make to foreigners such a confession of its poverty”.
24 When in the mid-1770s Hell was charged with the construction and equipping of a new observatory in Agria
(See Section I.2.4 above), he contacted the British Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne, asking him to place
orders for instruments at the appropriate instrument makers’ in London (Hell to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria,
dated Vienna 22 August 1775 [Vargha priv.]). However, Maskelyne seems to have been slow or reluctant to
provide this help (letter from Hell’s student Joannes Madarassy to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 27
January 1776 [Vargha priv.]). The low priority given to the matter caused Hell to write to his confrère Chr.
Mayer, who had just finished the instrumentation of his new observatory in Mannheim, which consisted to a
large extent of English instruments. Having lost patience with Maskelyne, Hell asked Mayer to procure the
instruments from England on his behalf or at least to give advice on what instrument makers he could contact in
London (Madarassy to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 3 March 1776 [Vargha priv.]). Finally, on 23
April 1776 Hell writes that Maskelyne has at last responded to Hell’s request and given him a list of prices for
the various instruments needed (Hell to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 23 April 1776 [Vargha
priv.]). A year later, however, no instruments had yet arrived and a “Count Dormer” in London was asked to
urge the instrument makers as well as Maskelyne himself to speed up the process (Madarassy to Bishop
Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 5 April 1777 [Vargha priv.]). Only in September 1777 – more than two years
after Hell first wrote to Maskelyne – could he inform the Bishop of Agria that the instruments had finally started
to arrive from England (Hell to Bishop Eszterházy in Agria, dated Vienna 8 September 1777 [Vargha priv.]).
The affair suggests that Maximilianus Hell lacked close contact with British astronomers, at least prior to 1775.
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