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Chapter
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astronomers, Bugge and Urban Bruun Aaskow (1742–1806)—recommended by
Kratzenstein upon the request of the president of the society and director of
the University of Copenhagen, Count Johan Ludvig Holstein (1694–1763)—to
Trondheim. Bugge and Aaskow left Copenhagen on May 5 and reached their
destination on the thirtieth of the same month, barely a week before the tran-
sit took place.25 The observation of Bugge and Aaskow was partially spoiled by
bad weather, however, and despite the advantageous geographical position of
Trondheim, their contribution is—like that of Horrebow—mentioned only
briefly by Lalande in the memoirs of the Académie Royale des Sciences.26
The meager output of the Danish transit observations in 1761 was all the
more remarkable as not too much skill was required to contribute to it. The key
was to be in possession of a good astronomical tube and a reliable clock for the
time-keeping. In principle, it was possible to learn the rest within a few weeks
or months of practice.27 Arguably, Denmark–Norway as a seafaring nation had
Science History Publications, 2009); Rolv Nøtvik Jakobsen, Gunnerus og nordisk vitskaps-
historie (Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press, 2015).
25 Lalande, “Remarques,” 114. Kratzenstein was also given the task of providing Bugge and
Aaskow with the necessary instruments, cf. Egil Snorrason, C.G. Kratzenstein: Professor
physices experimentalis Petropol. et Havn. and His Studies on Electricity during the Eigh-
teenth Century, Acta historica scientiarum naturalium et medicinalium edidit bibliotheca
universitatis Hauniensis 29 (Odense: Odense University Press, 1974), 86.
26 Lalande, “Remarques,” 114. As for the claim about the bad weather, see Thykier, Gylden-
kerne, and Darnell, Dansk Astronomi Gennem Firehundrede År, 2:261. This is confirmed
not only by Lalande but also by a Latin poem consisting of twenty elegiac couplets pub-
lished by the mayor of Trondheim, Niels Krogh Bredal (1732–78), just after the transit had
taken place. It tells how the two observers struggled with adverse weather during the
transit and had to content themselves with the end stages of the transit alone; cf. Niels
Krogh Bredal, “Amicis summo honore suscipiendis scientiæ astronomicæ peritis Dominis
Bugge et Aaskov, ad Nidrosiam Veneris Solem transeuntis videndæ gratia iter facienti-
bus per iniuriam nebulosæ athmosphæræ ut plurimum spe frustratis inter otia has line-
olas posuit,” Kiøbenhavnske Nye Tidender om lærde Sager (June 18, 1761): 203–4.
27 That laymen were encouraged to participate in the project is evident (besides exchanges
cited in Chapter 2 above between Hell and amateurs in and around Vienna) from the
pedagogical nature of several treatises published on the eve of the transits of the 1760s.
Besides Hell’s Transitus Veneris per discum Solis anni 1761 and Röhl’s Merkwürdigkeiten von
den Durchgängen der Venus durch die Sonne, already mentioned, such works include
James Ferguson, A Plain Method of Determining the Parallax of Venus by Her Transit over
the Sun (1761), cf. Sellers, Transit of Venus, 122–23; Benjamin Martin, Venus in the Sun: Being
an Explanation of the Rationale of That Great Phænomenon; Of the Several Methods Used
by Astronomers for Computing the Quantity and Phases Thereof; And of the Manner of Ap-
plying a Transit of Venus over the Solar Disk, for the Discovery of the Parallax of the Sun,
Settling the Theory of That Planet’s Motion, and Ascertaining the Dimensions of the Solar
System (London: W. Owen, 1761); Nevil Maskelyne, Instructions Relative to the Observation
of the Ensuing Transit of Venus over the Sun’s Disk, on the 3rd of June 1769 (London:
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book Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe"
Maximilian Hell (1720–92)
And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe
- Title
- Maximilian Hell (1720–92)
- Subtitle
- And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe
- Authors
- Per Pippin Aspaas
- László Kontler
- Publisher
- Brill
- Location
- Leiden
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-90-04-41683-3
- Size
- 15.5 x 24.1 cm
- Pages
- 492
- Categories
- Naturwissenschaften Physik
Table of contents
- Acknowledgments VII
- List of Illustrations IX
- Bibliographic Abbreviations X
- Introduction 1
- 1 Shafts and Stars, Crafts and Sciences: The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces 37
- 2 Metropolitan Lures: Enlightened and Jesuit Networks, and a New Node of Science 91
- 3 A New Node of Science in Action: The 1761 Transit of Venus and Hell’s Transition to Fame 134
- 4 The North Beckons: “A desperate voyage by desperate persons” 172
- 5 He Came, He Saw, He Conquered? The Expeditio litteraria ad Polum Arcticum 209
- 6 “Tahiti and Vardø will be the two columns […]”: Observing Venus andDebating the Parallax 258
- 7 Disruption of Old Structures 305
- 8 Coping with Enlightenments 344
- Appendix 1 Map of the Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus (with Glossary of Geographic Names) 394
- Appendix 2 Instruction for the Imperial and Royal Astronomer Maximilian Hell, S.J 398
- Bibliography 400
- Index 459