Page - 74 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 174 professors (Kéri Borgia, Frölich, Franz, Kollár), some of them flamboyant, char- ismatic polymaths aligned with the projects of improvement launched by the Viennese government; aristocratic promoters of such projects themselves (Königsegg); scholars, teachers, and institutional leaders working in more modest localities, whose cultural (Kazy) and/or economic (Poda) significance nevertheless pointed way beyond the confines of those localities; and vaga- bonds defying the perils of traversing distant seas and lands for the sake of the greater glory of God, the saving of souls, and the progress of knowledge (Zakar- jás). Most of the many individuals to be encountered as we follow the later phases of his career can be reduced to one of these types. Hell’s own trajectory led him to assume the character of most of these types in turns, occasionally even more than one of them at the same time. For the time being, having completed the curriculum in theology and been ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in 1751, he continued his career in the Jesuit cen- ters of the Hungarian provinces. First, he passed his obligatory third year of probation in Banská Bystrica, one of the two places in the Austrian province where this could be done (the other being Judenburg in Styria).110 Once fin- ished with the probation, in the summer and autumn of 1752 Hell was briefly involved as a consultant for the construction of an astronomical observatory at the University of Trnava, an indication of his growing reputation in the field.111 By this time, Trnava boasted some traditions in astronomical studies and observations, going back to the seventeenth century,112 although, as men- tioned, it was Kéri Borgia during his first stay there in 1735–36 who began to devote systematic attention to the subject, including the construction of in- struments that were later also used elsewhere in Europe.113 The idea of estab- lishing an observatory originated with him, too. In many accounts, Hell is cred- ited with planning and supervising the construction of the observatory, but all 110 Lukács, Catalogi personarum, 9:289–90. Some of the literature mentions Žilina, while Döb- rentei gives Zvolen (Zólyom, Altsohl), but there was no domus probationis at either of these places. 111 For a comprehensive account of the establishment and history of the observatory, see Alžbeta Hološová and Henrieta Žažová, History of the Observatory at the University of Trnava (Trnava: Trnavská Univerzita, 2013). 112 Farkas Gábor Kiss, “Johann Misch Astrophilus Nagyszombaton,” Magyar Könyvszemle 121, no. 2 (2005): 140–66; Lajos Bartha, “A nagyszombati egyetem csillagvizsgálójának kezde- tei,” Padeu 16 (2006): 8–38, here 11. 113 In the present context, it is interesting to note that Kéri Borgia’s “scientific productions” are mentioned by Zakarjás in a letter of June 15, 1749 as part of the rich equipment seen at the University of Cádiz. “Zakariás János és Fáy Dávid,” 125. While in Trnava, Kéri Borgia also published a Dissertatio astronomica de cometa viso 1729 et 1730 (1736). Cf. Bartha, “A nagy szombati egyetem,” 11–12.