Maximilian Hell (1720–92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment EuropeThe Viennese Jesuit court astronomer Maximilian Hell was a key figure in the eighteenth-century circulation of knowledge. He was already famous by the time of his celebrated 1769 expedition for the observation of the transit of Venus in northern Scandinavia. However, the 1773 suppression of his order forced Hell to develop ingenious strategies of accommodation to changing international and domestic circumstances. Through a study of his career in local, regional, imperial, and global contexts, this book sheds new light on the complex relationship between the Enlightenment, Catholicism, administrative and academic reform in the Habsburg monarchy, and the practices and ends of cultivating science in the Republic of Letters around the end of the first era of the Society of Jesus. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces | 37 |
Enlightened and Jesuit Networks and a New Node of Science | 91 |
The 1761 Transit of Venus and Hells Transition to Fame | 134 |
A desperate voyage by desperate persons | 172 |
5 He Came He Saw He Conquered? The Expeditio litteraria ad Polum Arcticum | 209 |
Observing Venus and Debating the Parallax | 258 |
7 Disruption of Old Structures | 305 |
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Common terms and phrases
academy astronomer astronomicae Banská Štiavnica Bernoulli Bessenyei biography Boscovich Buda Budapest Cambridge century Christian Cluj Copenhagen correspondence cultural Danish dated Vienna Demonstratio edited Eger eighteenth eighteenth-century Ephemerides Eszterházy Europe European ex-Jesuit Expeditio litteraria expedition Father Hell Franz French German Göttingen Graz György Habsburg monarchy Hell and Sajnovics Hell Miksa Hell's Hungarian Hungary imperial and royal included István János Jesuit Jesuit observatory Jesuit Science Johann Joseph Journal des Sçavans Kingdom of Hungary Kollár Lalande language László Kontler Latin learned Lexell Liesganig linguistic magnetic Magyar manuscript Maria mathematics Maximilian Hell mentioned Mesmer Observatio transitus Veneris parallaxi Solis Paris passage de Vénus Petersburg Pinzger Pippin Aspaas Planman professor published reform Republic of Letters Sajnovics's Sámi scientific Society of Jesus solar parallax studies suppression tion transit of Venus Transylvania Trattner Trnava Tromsø Trondheim University Press Vardø Vardøhus Venus transit observations Verlag Viennese Wargentin Weiss Wien