Maximilianus Hell (1720-1792) - Munin

Apart from Halloy, who was born in the vicinity of Namur in present-day (then Habsburg-
ruled) Belgium and who had been a professor of mathematics in Tyrnavia (1738/39), Vienna
(1739/40) and Graecium (1743-45) before he was put in charge of the observatory, the rest
were recruited from professorships west of Vienna. Thus, Mözburg had previously been a
professor of mathematics in both Graecium and Lincium, Scherffer in Graecium only, Pevere
in Goritia 136 by the Adriatic and Boda in Clagenfurtum and Lincium. One director was even
recruited without having had a previous chair in mathematical sciences at all (Mayr). It is also
noteworthy that apart from the first and last (Halloy and Boda), they all served for a short
period. Nor was there, apart from some meteorological reports, ever initiated any publication
series for astronomical data sets from this institution. 137
In a paper of 1935, Johann Steinmayr characterises the Graecium observatory as “all but a
stillborn child”. 138 His paper is almost exclusively based on a German translation of the
annual reports (litterae annuae) of the Collegium Graecense and has many shortcomings that
are remedied by the introduction and comments of the editors Isolde Müller and Thomas
Posch, who recently published it in the journal Acta Historica Astronomiae. When comparing
this paper with the catalogue of “Jesuiten-Mathematiker” by Karl Fischer (1978), which is
based on contemporaneous catalogues of the Society, many discrepancies emerge. The
provocative conclusion of Steinmayr, however, remains noteworthy, and one may well ask:
how successful was this institution during its first decades of existence?
Both the appendices of Hell’s Ephemerides and surviving parts of his correspondence bear
witness of contact between Graecium and Vienna. This brings us to the second parallel life,
that of Josephus Mayr SJ. Fischer in his catalogue explains that Mayr was born in Passau (in
southeastern Bavaria) in the same year as Hell and that he entered the Society of Jesus in
1736. Unfortunately, however, I have been unable to find information on his early career
except for some piecemeal information that can be extracted from a single letter (presented
below). In 1755, at the same time as Hell’s appointment in Vienna, Mayr was appointed
professor matheseos and praefectus speculae astronomicae (‘director of the astronomical
136 Goritia or Goricia (L) = Görz (G), Gorizia (Italian).
137 If the manuscripts preserved at the Grazer Universitätsbibliothek are anything to go by, regular astronomical
observations were made in Graz in 1758-60, 1762 and 1764-1773. In addition, some astronomical observations
from the years 1746-47 are extant, as well as meteorological observations from the years 1754-56 and 1760-73
(information taken from Müller & Posch in Steinmayr 2011 and from email correspondence with Mag. Michaela
Scheibl at the Universitätsbibliothek Graz. I profit from this occasion to express my gratitude to them all).
138 Steinmayr 2011, p. 245: “das Institut […] blieb beinahe ein tot geborenes Kind”.
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