Page - 217 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

217The Expeditio litteraria ad Polum Arcticum contemporaries used vernacular equivalents of the word exactly in this sense, even referring to expeditions. As Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811) summed up the historical significance of British participation in the 1761 Venus transit project in a letter to the president of the Royal Society of London: Nor can the learned world but look upon themselves as highly indebted to your Lordship, for that noble zeal, which you have manifested for the improvement of astronomy, in setting forward, and promoting, these lit­ erary expeditions, which tend to the benefit of mankind, and the honour of our native country [italics added].27 Literary, or littéraire, had a similar meaning in French. Lalande, in one of his letters to Weiss, asked him to address his letters to the Académie Royale des Sciences, so that the academy would cover the postage. This would be quite legitimate, he proceeded, for what they were dealing with was “above all obser- vations and literary correspondence [correspondance litteraire],” that is, con- tents worthy of being paid for by the academy.28 Finally, when Hell’s planned work was referred to in contemporary translations into Danish, the title was regularly rendered Det lærde Tog.29 The epithet lærd is associated with the noun Videnskab (Wissenschaft), implying both erudition and empirical sci- ence, but hardly works of fiction, which nowadays appears to be the primary connotation of “literary.”30 27 Nevil Maskelyne, “An Account of the Observations Made on the Transit of Venus, June 6, 1761, in the Island of St. Helena: In a Letter to […] George Earl of Macclesfield, President of the Royal Society, from the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne […]. Read Nov. 5, 1761” PTRSL (1762), 196– 201, here 200. 28 Lalande to Weiss in Trnava, dated Paris, August 7, 1768, in Vargha, Correspondance de Weiss, 68. 29 See, e.g., Maximilian Hell, “Observation over Veneris Gang forbi Soelens Skive den 3 Junii 1769. anstillet i Wardøhuus efter den Stormægtigste og Allernaadigste Konge til Danne- mark og Norge &c. &c. Kong Christian den Syvendes Befalning, og forelæst det Kongelige Videnskabernes Selskab i Kiøbenhavn den 24 November 1769. af Maximilian Hell. Oversat af det Latinske i det Danske Sprog af Henrich Hövinghoff,” Skrifter Kiøb. 10 (1770): 537–618, here 538–39; Ioannes Sainovics, “Beviis, at Ungarernes og Lappernes Sprog er det samme: Oversat af det Latinske ved M.R. Fleischer,” Skrifter Kiøb. 10 (1770): 653–732, here 731. 30 A likely model for Hell’s work is the De litteraria expeditione by Boscovich and his fellow Jesuit Christopher Maire (1697–1767), published in 1755. As Boscovich explains in the pref- ace, it consists of five parts: (1) a historical and physical account of the two Jesuits’ expedi­ tio litteraria through the Papal States, by Boscovich; (2) a determination of one degree of meridian on the basis of observations made by the two Jesuits, by Maire; (3) a correction of the geographical map of the Papal States, by Maire; (4) descriptions of the instruments used during the expedition, by Boscovich; and (5) a discussion of the shape of the Earth