Page - 120 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 2120 of a teacher, to dare in this letter to address you, who thanks to your great merits sits in such an illustrious chair.78 No doubt Hatvani resorted to such flowers of courtesy, not to say flattery, in order to create an opportunity to incidentally attach to his letter a copy of his printed determination of the geographical latitude of Debrecen. The imperial and royal astronomer’s answer was no less swift and enthusiastic than elabo- rate and respectful. He congratulated Hatvani on being the first to have at- tempted to determine the geographical coordinates of Debrecen. What is more, Hell found Hatvani’s observations sound and the calculations accurate. He even returned his interlocutor’s compliments by acknowledging that Hat- vani’s “name, industry, and experience in the mathematical sciences have been known to me for quite a while, ever since I lived in Transylvania.”79 Thus, while we cannot ascertain the extent to which Hatvani, beginning his electrical ex- periments in Debrecen in the 1750s, may have been aware of a similar interest on the part of Hell around the same time, the one-time Cluj professor appears to have been well informed—or found it important to pretend familiarity with Hatvani’s work, which would be even more noteworthy. Moreover, in his reply Father Hell furnished Hatvani with a calculation of coming occultations of the moons of Jupiter, and encouraged him to make diligent observations of these phenomena, so that even the longitude of Debrecen could be accurately deter- mined. In all, he promised close collaboration and ended his letter by urging Hatvani to “continue to bestow the same benevolence upon me in the future, and give more honor to the learned world as well as our homeland [Patria nos- tra] through the publication of your illustrious works.”80 Hatvani responded a few weeks later by assuring Hell of his determination to carry out the observations expected of him, but added that his lack of instru- mentation posed serious problems. Although he was in possession of a couple of telescopes and a decent pendulum clock, he had no proper place to mount them and was even missing a quadrant. By issuing his work of astronomy, Hat- vani asserted, “I wanted to set an example, so that others might discover that the Hungarians [Ungari] would not be wanting in intellectual capacity, if only they had the patrons to provide for them.”81 The exchange of letters between Hell and Hatvani appears to have stopped  here, and neither the latter’s comet observation nor any other future 78 Hatvani to Hell in Vienna, dated Debrecen, May 29, 1759, wus, secretary’s copy. 79 Hell to Hatvani in Debrecen, dated Vienna, June 14, 1759. wus, Hell’s draft. 80 Hell to Hatvani in Debrecen, dated Vienna, June 14, 1759. wus, Hell’s draft. 81 Hatvani to Hell in Vienna, dated Debrecen, July 7, 1759. wus, secretary’s copy.