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

Chapter 292 Precisely at this time, in keeping with the university reforms initiated by Van Swieten, a new main building of the university was being erected upon the resolution of Maria Theresa. The plans were drafted by the court architect brought to Vienna by Francis of Lorraine, Jean-Nicolas Jadot de Ville-Issey (1710–61), while the construction work was supervised by Johann Joseph Count Trautson (1707–57), archbishop of Vienna, as “protector of the university” from 1752 onward. It was also decided to launch a chair for mechanics and astrono- my, and to construct a new “public,” or “Imperial and Royal Observatory,” on top of the new assembly hall in the new building. This decision gave the obser- vatory a prominent position in the city center. When finished, it would rise some 37.9 meters above street level. Ideally, it should have been even higher in order to prevent the spires of the nearby Jesuit church and even the Stephans- dom from blocking the view of parts of the sky, but the fundaments of the building were not strong enough to support that.5 To begin with, Father Franz was appointed as the scientific and technical supervisor of the construction of the tower, which appears to have been mostly completed and ready to be in- stalled with the instruments bequeathed by Marinoni by the time Hell was in- vited from Cluj to take charge. Hell’s appointment as court astronomer resulted from the confluence of tal- ent, contacts, and timing. His talent in the mathematical sciences, and astron- omy in particular, perhaps together with his bent for practical applications, had been demonstrated and noted in Vienna, Trnava, and Cluj. That he had already published three mathematical textbooks as well as a work of history of a kind that was frequently resorted to in almanacs must also have spoken in his favor.6 Thanks to his apparent association with Königsegg as a powerful figure in an important government office, his qualities may have already been known in courtly circles, not to speak about the leverage gained from support by the 5 Steinmayr, “Geschichte der Universitätssternwarte,” 265–66. The location was far from ideal in other respects, too: the traffic of chariots on the block-paved streets caused shocks even to the more modest structure, during the summer the temperature was badly affected by the radiation of the heat that the roofs received from the Sun, while in the winter the smoke from ovens often obliterated the sight. Karl von Littrow, Die neue Sternwarte der k.k. Universität Wien (Vienna: n.p., 1874), 41. Cf. Pärr, Maximilian Hell, 101. 6 In the first non-anonymous edition of the Adjumentum memoriae (Vienna: Ghelen, 1774), preface, unpaginated, Hell claims that “since chronology and geography cannot subsist with- out astronomy, and history without chronology and geography is a blind matron hallucinat- ing virtually every minute, we must confess that history is in debt to astronomy in the same measure as it is in debt to chronology and geography. Accordingly, it is the prerogative of the astronomer to treat chronological–historical subjects solidly.” While this quote is missing in the earlier editions, the linking of astronomy with chronology and history appears to be commonplace.