Page - 200 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 4200 lavish and truly royal dinner, which all ministers at the royal court at- tended, as well as envoys and ministers from foreign courts. Before din- ner, the illustrious minister introduced me to every single ambassador in the assembly hall, spelling their names out loud. During the meal itself, I was placed between the ambassadors of the majesties of Naples and Eng- land respectively; not far from me were ambassadors from such countries where our Society is abolished.90 It was also in Copenhagen that the itinerary for the rest of the journey was carefully designed, a process that had begun even before Hell’s release from Vienna became known. Various memoranda by Copenhagen residents with personal experience of the conditions for traveling in northernmost Norway were submitted to this effect, but an opinion was also requested from the bish- op of Trondheim (Nidaros), Johan Ernst Gunnerus (1718–73), given his good knowledge of the terrain. Gunnerus was a man of broad learning. Having stud- ied and taught theology, philosophy, and natural law under Wolff and other notabilities in Halle and Jena for more than a decade, he was appointed bishop in 1758. His diocese covered virtually half the Norwegian territory, from the coastal areas of today’s Møre through entire Trøndelag and all the way up to the Russian border. Famously, soon upon his arrival in Trondheim, Gunnerus established the Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, which earned a royal epithet—and the patronage of King Christian vii—in 1767. It was upon his advice that Borchgrevink, who had already been to the region of their des- tination three times, joined the team (“as a botanist, who studied with Lin- naeus in Sweden for a year”—as Sajnovics introduces him).91 While the elderly minister Moltke served as host, inviting Hell and Sajnovics for dinner every other day during their entire three-week stop in Copenhagen, responsibility for the logistics of the expedition as such was in the hands of Otto Thott. Min- ister of the interior and responsible for all affairs of the church and higher edu- cation, including serving as president and host of the sessions of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences, Thott was the obvious candidate to handle the af- fairs of this high-profile expedition. In Hell’s letter to the Jesuit general, Thott is praised for his expediency and is also portrayed as an excellent host: “During a costly dinner party, at which all prominent members of the Society of Sci- ences” were present, Thott 90 Hell to the superior general of the Society of Jesus in Rome, dated Vardø, January 15, 1769 (draft, wus). 91 Sajnovics, travel diary, proofread version (wus), August 8, 1768. On Borchgrevink and his career in general, see Nils Voje Johansen, “Vitenskap som springbrett.”