Page - 73 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

73The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces he came from a family of engineers and was fluent in Latin, which he had ac- quired in the Jesuit schools, Hell was certainly well suited for carrying it out. Finally, in a roll-call of figures and possible encounters that link Hell’s years of study in Vienna and his background around the mines of Banská Štiavnica, mention must be made of Nikolaus Poda (Boda, or Poda von Neuhaus [1723– 98]), already referred to briefly.106 Poda, the scion of a Tyrolean noble family but a native of Vienna who joined the Society of Jesus in 1740 and pursued his studies in philosophy in Klagenfurt, returned to the capital for the course in mathematics in 1748 (when Hell did the same in order to begin the theology curriculum), and became a first-year student of theology (theologus primi anni) when Hell was in his third year in 1750.107 As we shall later see in more detail, whether or not they were in contact at the university, they cultivated relatively strong ties later on. Ordained in 1752, Poda then taught mathematics, mechan- ics, and hydraulics (but also developed a strong interest in entomology, miner- alogy, and paleontology) in Klagenfurt, Linz, and Graz, and was the director of the observatory in Graz, before his appointment at the mining school in Ban- ská Štiavnica in 1765. He was a professor of mine metrology, mechanics, and engineering there, also producing mechanical models and publishing works with descriptions and images of machines used in the local mines—namely those constructed by Hell’s father and brother. In doing so, Poda apparently violated regulations requiring the express permission of the authorities for mines and mints for the publication of such images (after all, industrial secrets were at stake).108 This may have been the cause for his untimely retirement in 1772 to the Abbey of Traunkirchen, where he devoted himself to the comple- tion of his textbook on mechanics. In the turmoil caused by the Society’s sup- pression in 1773, this work remained unpublished. Like others in the same posi- tion, Poda then maintained himself as a secular priest who also gave private lessons in the fields of his expertise, while he was also active in the scientific and freemasonic circles around von Born, whom he had known well from his Banská Štiavnica years.109 Several types are emerging from the present scrutiny as populating the so- cial and intellectual universe of Hell as a rising star of an important chapter in the history of the Habsburg–Jesuit liaison. They include metropolitan 106 See nn. 35 and 42 above. 107 Lukács, Catalogi personarum, 9:44, 175. 108 Helmut W. Flügel, “Nikolaus Poda und die mineralogisch-paläontologische Sammlung der Jesuitenuniversität Graz von 1766,” Joannea Mineralogie 3 (2006): 25–61, here 31–32. 109 Von Born played a part in the publication of Poda’s Kurzgefaßte Beschreibung (cf. n. 35), and Poda participated in the international meeting for miners, metallurgists, and natural- ists in Skleno in 1786, mentioned above.