Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

apparatus or appendix). Often, as in the case of an old language like Latin, the textual
edition will include a translation into a modern language as well. The present critical
editions establishes a Latin text on the basis of various pieces of textual evidence. Variant
readings are listed in a critical apparatus, and there is a facing translation in English. The
use of explicatory footnotes to the English translation has been kept to a minimum.
Modern editions of Hell‟s works began with Carl Ludwig Littrow‟s P. Hell’s Reise nach
Wardoe („Father Hell‟s Journey to Vardø‟, 1835), which included substantial parts of
Hell‟s manuscript Observationes Astronomicæ et Cæteræ Jn Jtinere litterario Viennâ
Wardoëhusium usque factæ 1768 („Astronomical and other observations made during the
scientific journey from Vienna to Vardøhus in 1768 [and 1769]‟). That particular
manuscript contains the Venus transit observation itself and formed the basis upon which
Father Hell composed his report from Vardøhus, as discussed in Chapter II.3 above.
Littrow even included in his book substantial extracts from the travel diary of Joannes
Sajnovics in a loose German translation.
Various miscellaneous articles have presented some particular source, for example
Ferdinánd Mencsik‟s transcript of a letter from August Ludwig Schlözer to Hell in the
journal Történelmi Tár (1905). In three more elaborate works, numerous letters and other
manuscript sources have been edited. These are the contributions by Ferenc Pinzger
(1927), Ansgar Rabenalt (1986) and Magda Vargha (1990-92). In addition, a report by
Truls Lynne Hansen and the author of this thesis included facsimiles of manuscripts from
the expedition in Norway with palaeographical comments (Hansen & Aspaas 2005).
For all their academic value, however, hardly any of the contributions mentioned are
critical editions in the sense outlined above. The closest we get is Ansgar Rabenalt‟s
edition of the correspondence of Fixlmillner and Hell (in German, 1986). Unlike Pinzger
and Vargha, Rabenalt gives information on variant readings in footnotes. Furthermore, he
presents brief summaries of the contents of each letter and explains difficult glosses in his
footnotes. Unfortunately, the same kind of diligence is not observed by either Pinzger or
Vargha. It would be harsh to blame those authors for this. It is the privilege of a doctoral
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