Page - 199 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

199The North Beckons Wherever they stayed for more than brief stops, they took the opportunity pre- sented by the journey for socializing with local scholars. Thus, in Leipzig they met mathematician and astronomer Gottfried Heinsius (1709–69), formerly working in St. Petersburg with Euler (1734–1800), and two Hungarians: father and son Bél of Pressburg (Bratislava) origin, the elder being a professor of po- etry and the younger a doctor of medicine.86 As for the latter, “the physiogno- my and gestures of the man reminds a lot of our Pray.”87 After passing through some north German towns, including the bustling port city of Hamburg, Hell and Sajnovics entered Danish territory and had an audience with King Christian vii in Traventhal on June 1, 1768. The king, for- eign minister, and a considerable entourage of crucial ministers were about to leave the country on the young monarch’s Grand Tour of Germany, England, and France. According to Sajnovics, their young patron proved to be very well versed in the themes relevant to their mission. He was especially interested in fallback scenarios, in case the observation of the transit of Venus became frus- trated by adverse conditions, and was very pleased to learn about other useful scientific research that they were planning to carry out in Vardø. From the port in Travemünde outside Lübeck, Hell and Sajnovics proceeded by ship to Co- penhagen, where they stayed for three weeks. Of this period, there is unfortu- nately no record in any of the portions of the diary by Sajnovics, though from a report to Kaunitz by the secretary of the Austrian embassy in Copenhagen we learn that the Viennese Jesuits met Horrebow, and “as it seems, the presence of Father Hell is utilized here to improve the very ordinary local observatory.”88 As Hell and Sajnovics arrived in Copenhagen, on the back of a storm that left the expedition leader sea sick,89 they were received cordially by the lord chamberlain, Count Moltke, who spared no efforts taking care of the imperial astronomer of Vienna and his assistant over the coming weeks. In one of his letters to the superior general of the Society of Jesus, Hell describes how he was invited by Moltke to a particularly 86 These were the son and the grandson of polymath Mátyás (Matej) Bél, already mentioned in Chapter 1. After studies at various German universities, Károly András (Carl Andreas) Bél (1717–82) had his first appointment in Leipzig in 1742 and became ordinary professor in 1757. From 1764, he edited the important journal Nova acta eruditorum, where Hell’s work was often reviewed and where the call for subscriptions of the planned Expedition litteraria ad Polum arcticum was later published. 87 Sajnovics, travel diary, proofread version (wus), on May 13, 1768. 88 ÖStA, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Gesandtschaftsberichte, fasc. 63. Cited in Pinzger, Hell Miksa, 1:75. 89 Sajnovics, letter to Splenyi in Trnava, dated Copenhagen, June 21, 1768 (contemporaneous copy preserved at Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtára, Budapest, irodalmi leve- lezés [hereafter: mtak IL] 2-r, 13. sz.).