Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

The flattery evidently went home. Correspondence between Hell and Bugge continued over
the years to come. 32 Besides, in a report of Bugge, dated 8 January 1768 and preserved among
Otto Thott’s papers at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, the surveyor refers to Maximilianus
Hell as “the most learned and diligent astronomer of our age”. 33 Bugge was later to emerge as
the Astronomer Royal of Denmark (appointed in 1777, after the death of Christian Horrebow
and subsequent removal of the Professor designatus, Peder Horrebow the Younger). As early
as 1759, at the age of 19, Bugge had become involved in the official survey of Denmark; in
February 1761, he had presented the results of his work to the Danish Royal Society, which
soon after hired him for future surveying; and later in the same year he had been entrusted
with the task of observing the transit of Venus from Trondheim. 34 He was clearly a man with
influential supporters. In Copenhagen’s Royal Society, the prominent member Kratzenstein
certainly favoured the young Bugge (Section II.2.3). And the President of the Royal Society
had since 1763 been none other than Otto Thott, who was also the Obersecretair of Det
Danske Cancelli (in effect, Interior Minister of Denmark). The same Thott was one of the
three men responsible for Hell’s invitation, according to his own account. Perhaps Bugge was
the one who proposed Hell as a candidate for the Vardø expedition? There is a regrettable
lack of sources to answer these questions. However, Hell’s claim, that he had no commercium
litterarium with anyone in Denmark prior to 1767, is definitely not correct. It is difficult to
ascertain whether his claim of having received two previous invitations is exaggerated as
well.
Denmark-Norway’s reasons for inviting Father Hell to Vardø have been discussed in Sections
I.2.3 and II.2.4 above. From the astronomer’s perspective, a main reason to accept the
invitation must have been that Father Hell, as an expert on the transits of Venus, was well
aware of the advantages of being stationed on the northern shores of Lapland in June 1769.
He had himself undertaken calculations of the transit, and the region had, after all, been
32
Not all letters are intact. For a complete list of the letters that have been available for the present study, see
Unprinted Sources, 1a and 1b.
33
T. Bugge, “Observatio eclipseos lunaris, quæ anno 1768 tempore astronomico die 3 Januarii, tempore autem
civili die 4 Januarii contigit, factæ Havniæ”, manuscript signed “Havniæ d: 8 Januarii 1768” (KB Copenhagen,
MS Thott 822. 4 o ): “Eâdem Methodô observavi eclipsin lunæ die 24 Februarii anno 1766, quam communem feci
cum Clarissimo et Diligentissimo nostri ævi astronomo Windobonensi P. Maximiliano Hell. Celeberrimus hic
Vir meas observationes cum suis comparavit, et exinde reperiit Havniam a Wienna Austriæ distare versus
occidentem 17 m . 27 s in tempore” = “I used the same method to observe the lunar eclipse of 24 February 1766,
which I shared with the most enlightened and diligent astronomer of our age, Father Maximilianus Hell of
Vienna. This highly famous man compared these observations of mine with his own, and found from this
comparison that Copenhagen lies 17 minutes 27 seconds in time west of Vienna”.
34
Lomholt vol. I, 1942, pp. 511 & 530, vol IV, 1961, pp. 15-32; Thykier et al. vol. II, 1990, 254-257; Kragh
2005, pp. 93-100.
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