Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

eaders to make use of for the greater glory of God (“zur grösserer Ehre
GOttes”).
The Jesuit motto, ad majorem Dei gloriam, in this German rendition is bound neatly together
with the utilitarian ideology. At this stage in Hell’s career, there was seemingly no conflict
between the Jesuit mission and the state-promoted slogan of utility.
Finally, one more remark on the international aspect. The court astronomer’s gradually
expanding network of correspondents has already been mentioned, as well as the way in
which the Ephemerides Astronomicae functioned as a platform for publication of
observations. However, Maximilianus Hell also made himself visible on the international
arena by issuing tables of the sun, the moon and the planets of our solar system. In
supplements to the Ephemerides Astronomicae for the years 1763 and 1764, new editions of
the solar tables of Lacaille, the lunar tables of Tobias Mayer and the planetary tables of
Cassini were issued. 109 These were precious items for any skilled astronomer, but hardly any
bestseller candidates. In 1768, Hell also published a separate set of observations from China,
based on a manuscript of observations compiled by the Jesuit astronomer Augustinus
Hallerstein. In a letter to Hell’s colleague Weiss in Tyrnavia, the highly prolific science writer
Lalande, editor of the Connoissance, the French equivalent to the Ephemerides, expressed his
admiration of Maximilianus Hell for his being able to publish such voluminous works every
single year. 110
Theoretical works and data sets connected to the transits of Venus filled many pages of the
Ephemerides during the 1760s, a material which will be saved for analysis in part II of this
thesis. Suffice it to say that, by the mid-1760s, the court astronomer of Vienna, and his
Ephemerides Astronomicae in particular, had certainly become conspicuous on the
109 Sommervogel 1893, pp. 239-240 & 253.
110 Lalande to Weiss in Tyrnavia, dated Paris 10 June 1764, comparing his own textbook, the Astronomie (1 st edn
Paris 1764) with the Almagestum novum of Riccioli SJ (three vols., Bologna, 1651): “Riccioli vestigiis insistens
ejusdem amplitudinis opus suscepissem, sed librarium pro imprimendi sumptibus exequendis non invenissem,
difficile possumus Lutetiae mathematicos libros vulgare: difficile foret credere autorem pro maximo manuscripto
unum aut alterum exemplar sibi vix obtinere a typographo: miro amicum nostrum P. Hell etiamsi celeberrimum
ac doctissimum ephemeridum suarum volumen satis amplum quolibet anno posse vulgare” = “I would have liked
to follow in the footsteps of Riccioli and produce a work of the same length as his, but I would never have found
a publisher to cover the costs of its printing. It is difficult for us in Paris to publish books on mathematical
subjects; an author could hardly expect to receive a copy or two from the typographer in return for a voluminous
manuscript: I admire how our friend Father Hell, however famous and erudite, is able to publish a quite lengthy
volume of his Ephemerides every single year” (quoted from Vargha 1990, p. 57).
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