Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

5) all supervision of the calendars [i.e., almanacs] 77 is bestowed and laid upon
Him. This responsibility will not only consist in making sure that everything
that may originate from the superstition of the ancients and the crowd or from
the unfounded astrology, giving advice on weather, pharmacy, bloodletting,
growth of plants or human coincidences, shall be completely avoided: he is also
to edit an astronomical calendar every year and to publish it in time. 78
The main achievement of Hell was the Ephemerides ad meridianum Vindobonensem, the first
volume of which covered the year 1757 and which continued until the year 1806 (published
1805). In 1760, without revision of contents or lay-out it was renamed the Ephemerides
Astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonensem, a name it retained until the very end. This
periodical not only contained tables of the rising and setting of the Sun and other standard
contents of astronomical almanacs: it also included articles and monographs on various
scientific subjects as appendices. 79 The choice of Latin as the language of this publication
may seem odd today. Hell was, after all, supposed to disseminate astronomical knowledge to
the populace at large and to edit an official almanac for the Austrian lands, as stated in the
third and fifth tasks above. Why not use the vernacular, as the French did with their
Connoissance des Tems, 80 published since 1679, an example that later was followed by most
other countries? The simplest way to answer this question is twofold. On the one hand, there
existed no single vernacular that covered all the Habsburg lands. On the other, knowledge of
Latin was widespread: it still functioned as a lingua franca, especially in the Hungarian part
of the composite state of which Hell was an official representative. 81 In order to meet the
requirement of inspiring “das Publicum”, the Imperial and Royal Astronomer anno 1756 did
fine with Latin. Another issue that may have influenced his choice of language is that the
Latin of the Ephemerides proved excellent for international co-operation (see below).
77 “Calender” (or “Kalender”) in early-modern German is a broad designation corresponding to the English word
“almanac”. The German word “Almanach” is a late eighteenth-century import from French, which initially was
reserved for almanacs with poems (frequently referred to as “Musen-Almanach”), cf. Sühring 1979.
78 “Ernennung Maximilian Hells zum k.k. Astronomen, 1755.10.30 (Akt)” (archival reference as above):
“Fünftens wird ihm alle obsorg über die Calend[ern] überlassen, und aufgeleget. Diese wird nicht nur in jenem
bestehen, d[as]s alles, was von dem aberglauben d[er] alten und des Pöbels, und von der ungründl[ich]en
Astrologia für die Witterungen, Arzneyen, Aderlassen, Wachsthum der Pflanzen, und menschlichen Zufällen
herrühren kan, volkommen weggelassen werde, sond[er]n seiner obsorg wird beynebens obliegen, jährlich einen
Astronomischen Calend zu verfertigen, und zu rechter Zeit in Druck zu geben.”
79 See Sommervogel 1893 for a complete list of items published in the Ephemerides.
80 In more modernised spelling, Connaissance des temps. During 1762-67, it was renamed Connoissance des
Mouvemens Célestes, but changed back to its old name again after that.
81 Contrary to what is often claimed, that Latin was a specialty of the educated elite, István Tóth in his Literacy
and Written Culture in Early Modern Central Europe presents numerous examples of Latin spoken among
soldiers, merchants and other ordinary people in eighteenth-century Hugary (Tóth 2000, espec. pp. 130-145).
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