Page - 97 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

97Enlightened and Jesuit Networks, and a New Node of Science The fourth and fifth points of the instructions are crucial to the intended functions of the university observatory and its head, and are best considered together. According to the former: In order to promote the honor of this capital and its university, and to steer it toward the common good, the imperial and royal astronomer shall maintain a perpetual scientific correspondence [commercium litter- arium] with all the famous observatories abroad, and in so doing make sure that all observations that are necessary for the advancement of geo- graphy be communicated to this observatory by the foreign ones, and that no observations of the kind that other astronomers are eager to re- ceive, shall be neglected by him. Next, all supervision of the calendars [i.e., almanacs]26 is bestowed and laid upon him. This responsibility will not only consist in making sure that everything that may originate from the superstition of the ancients and the multitude, or from the unfounded astrology, on weather, medica- tions, bloodletting, growth of plants or human accidents, shall be com- pletely avoided: he is also to edit an astronomical calendar every year and to publish it in time.27 These requirements further elaborate on the previously formulated expecta- tion of developing a public profile for the observatory. To begin with the aspect 26 “Calender” (or “Kalender”) in early modern German is a broad designation corresponding to the English word “almanac.” The German word “Almanach” is a late eighteenth-century import from French, which initially was reserved for almanacs with poems (frequently referred to as “Musen-Almanach”); cf. Hartmut Sührig, “Die Entwicklung der niedersäch- sischen Kalender im 17. Jahrhundert,” Archiv für die Geschichte des ganzen Buchwesens 20 (1979): 329–794, esp. 335–72. 27 Instruction. Für dem Kaiser. Königl. Astronomen Maximilianum Hell S.J. Calendars had many truly useful functions like registering the dates of fairs and the schedule of postal services, or providing advice on the preservation of health in each season on the basis of centuries-old experience, and many others. But to illustrate the relevance of the po- lemic against divination based on astrology included in calendars with one example among many: a calendar issued in Bratislava in exactly the same year as the instruction to Hell, determined on the basis of zodiac signs the best days of the year for not only blood- letting and purging or hunting and fishing, but even cutting hair and nails. I. Gábor Kovács, Kis magyar kalendáriumtörténet 1880–ig.: A magyar kalendáriumok történeti és művelődésszociológiai vizsgálata (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1989), 27.