Page - 91 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

© PER PIPPIN ASPAAS AND LÁSZLÓ KONTLER, ����  |  doi:10.1163/9789004416833_004 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. Chapter 2 Metropolitan Lures: Enlightened and Jesuit Networks, and a New Node of Science 1 An Agenda for Astronomic Advance In January 1755, the Viennese court mathematician Johann Jakob (Giovanni Jacopo) Marinoni (1676–1755) passed away. Originally from Udine, Marinoni, whose contribution to the beginnings of astronomical observation activities in the Habsburg capital has already been mentioned briefly,1 was appointed in 1703, and from 1720 he also served as the second director of the Viennese Impe- rial and Royal Academy for Engineering (Wiener kaiserliche und königliche Ingenieurakademie), established in 1717 under the auspices of the Aulic War Council primarily to ensure the adequate training of military engineers.2 Dur- ing his more than five-decade career in Vienna, Marinoni also played leading roles in large-scale government-run projects, from modernizing and expand- ing the system of fortifications around the capital to the land survey of Lom- bardy (the so-called “Theresan cadaster”—in fact begun long before Maria Theresa’s accession).3 As a surveyor, he introduced new methods and instru- ments in the Habsburg lands; as an astronomer, he carried out observations (also popularized in broadsheets) and even assembled students to instruct in the small observatory in his home in central Vienna, equipped with instru- ments purchased from far and wide, and donated in his last will to the court. In 1745, Marinoni published a volume describing the observatory, its activities, and equipment in great detail. The book was dedicated to the empress, and recommended by its reviewers, Frölich and Franz, as a textbook.4 This was a formidable legacy in more sense than one. 1 Cf. above, Chapter 1, n. 86. 2 Madalina Veres, “Constructing Imperial Spaces: Habsburg Cartography in the Age of Enlight- enment” (PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2015), 58–61. 3 Carlo Capra, “The State of Milan’s ‘New Census,’” Catastro (December 2002): 129–33. 4 Johann Jakob Marinoni, De astronomica specula domestica et organico apparatu astronomico libri duo (Vienna: Kaliwoda, 1745), approbatio. The foreword also reveals that Marinoni ex- changed observation results with the Jesuit observatory tower, in whose construction he acted as an advisor. For Marinoni’s key biographical details and his activities as an astrono- mer, see Friedrich Slezák, “Johann Jakob Marinoni (1676–1755),” Donauraum 21 (1976): 195– 207; Pärr, Maximilian Hell, 84–89 and the literature cited there.