Page - 89 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

89The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces This is applied mathematics, adapted for a local audience. Practical applica- tions permeate the book as a whole: the exercises in the appendix are specifi- cally designed not merely for the use of the studious youth (ad usum privatum studiosae iuventutis) but contain questions of an economic nature for the use of citizens and merchants (Questionibus oeconomicis, & ad usum Civilem ac Mercatorum applicatis declaratae).159 The same ends are also apparent from a section describing and comparing various measurements and currencies from around Europe.160 Elsewhere, in a collection of thirty-nine questions for the public examination of two of Hell’s students, the task of the candidates is to calculate Cluj’s distance from Rome on the basis of data according to which a peregrinus, who made half the journey on horseback and a quarter of it on foot, covered altogether 126 miles (the solution given both by simple equation and by proportion).161 The utilitarian inspiration and aims of the Elementa is emphasized in the author’s preface in a way that combines religious commit- ments specific to the Society of Jesus with secular ones. Hell confesses there to be aspiring to serve “the glory of God and the progress of the benefit of the fa- therland,” and the former aspect is repeated once again in his introduction to the supplement of exercises for further study at home, bidding his students farewell in the wish that they “add to the Greater glory of God through [them] selves and [their] efforts.”162 Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, the motto of the Society of Jesus, with its missionary implications, thus found its way to Hell’s 1755 mathematics textbook in unison with the expression of his patriotic loyalties. It is against the whole of the background and trajectory outlined in this chapter that Hell’s notion of patria—one in harmony with his allegiance to the Jesuit order—needs to be appreciated. Hell as a patriot belonged to the com- munity of free and educated, Hungarus denizens of the Kingdom of Hungary, the natio hungarica: a socially highly variegated group dominated by the nobil- ity, but sharing more widely in a political heritage focused on the veneration of royal dynasties and a stock of ancient customs and statutes (re-conceptualized 159 Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, unpaginated. 160 Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, 87–93. 161 Maximilian Hell [Maximilianus Höll], Materia tentaminis mathematici: Aula Academica S.J. Claudiopolitana, die 14 Mensis Julii 1755. Cited in Heinrich, A kolozsvári csillagda, 32–33. 162 Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, praefatio, unpaginated, and appendix, unpagi- nated; see also the Scholion 362: “The following courses of mathematics are recommend- ed: […] If beginners are to seek their basic knowledge of mathematics in those textbooks, I hope they will keep in mind the words of Paul the Evangelist, [whatever you do], do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 4:31).” Hell, Elementa arithmeticae numericae, 230. Curi- ously, the reference to 1 Cor. 4:31 is a misprint for 1 Cor. 10:31. The gloriam dei part, how- ever, resonates clear enough.