Page - 84 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 184 three-foot quadrant, a pendulum clock, and a five-foot Newtonian tele- scope. [By the time of the suppression of the Society], I had already re- ceived from him several observations aimed at establishing the longitude and latitude of this observatory.142 The Cluj interlocutor mentioned by Hell must have been Ferdinand Hartmann (dates unknown), native of Sibiu (Nagyszeben, Cibinium/Hermannopolis, Hermannstadt), a Saxon town in far southeastern Transylvania. Hartmann en- tered the Society of Jesus in 1753 and served as a professor of geometry and “practical geography” (that is, geodesy) in Trnava in 1768–69, and as a professor of mathematics (1770–71) and experimental physics (1772–73) in Cluj.143 If, ac- cording to the letter to Bernoulli, Hartmann carried out observations from a still “unfinished” building, another twelve years later Hell reported that the foundations (fundamenta) he had been able to lay “still to this day lie hidden underground.”144 Whatever stage of completion the building ever reached, it fell victim to the fire of 1798 that ravaged extensive parts of Cluj, though some of the astronomical equipment could be saved for the new observatory, which was erected by 1805.145 The focus of Hell’s recorded activities while in Cluj was not astronomy. He undertook experiments in electricity146—in a characteristically eighteenth- century fashion, combining a fascination with the field and an avid interest in magnetism147—in the Museum Mathematicum, lectured as a professor of mathematics, preached in German and “Slavic,” and extended pastoral care for military personnel. Unfortunately, his sermons, which may have allowed a glimpse of his religious views, are not extant. The electrical experiments, 142 Hell to Bernoulli iii, Vienna, February 15, 1777. Universitätsbibliothek Basel (hereafter: ubb), LIa964. Some letters at the end of each line are missing due to the binding. These are supplied in brackets. 143 Fischer, “Jesuiten-Mathematiker in der Deutschen Assistenz,” 170. According to Heinrich, Az első kolozsvári csillagda, 49 (where it is also inaccurately claimed that Hartmann was Hell’s immediate successor and held the position until 1769), it was József Mártonffy (1746–1800; http://jezsuita.hu/nevtar/martonffy-jozsef/ [accessed April 12, 2019]), future bishop of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) and a student of mathematics in Vienna in 1771–72 (presumably associated with Hell), who assisted Hartmann in obtaining instruments. 144 Hell to Bugge, Vienna, July 24, 1789. Pinzger, Hell Miksa, 2:154–55. 145 Heinrich, Az első kolozsvári csillagda, 51–52. 146 He may have been inspired also in this by Franz, who used to perform electrical experi- ments in the Museum Mathematicum and published a Dissertatio de natura electrica [Treatise on the nature of electricity (1751)]. 147 John L. Heilbron, Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study in Early Modern Physics (New York: Dover, 1979).