Page - 221 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

221The Expeditio litteraria ad Polum Arcticum Neither Hell nor Sajnovics could boast of a background as natural histori- ans, and no article by them pertaining to the very first part of this volume ever saw the light of day. In research relating to natural history, they were no doubt aided by Borchgrevink who, it will be remembered, had been educated by Linnaeus at Uppsala. In a letter from Vardø to the professor of botany in Co- penhagen, Georg Christian Oeder (1728–91), Hell promises to assemble “algae, mosses, and other aquatic plants” for Oeder to make use of for his purposes.35 Collecting plants of the Danish–Norwegian kingdom was now a priority, in conjunction with the richly illustrated Flora Danica, the first ten parts of which were edited by Oeder during this period. An alumnus of Albrecht von Haller (1708–77) at Göttingen University, Oeder himself had undertaken several expe- ditions across Denmark and Norway, but never traveled farther north than Rana in Nordland county, not too far beyond Trondheim. What came out of Hell’s promised contributions to the Flora Danica is, how- ever, hard to establish, since Oeder was removed from office not long after Hell’s return to Copenhagen, and the name of the collector of specimens for each plant is not mentioned in the printed Flora. Moreover, for this part of the Expeditio litteraria, Hell would probably have drawn heavily upon a pioneering work by bishop and amateur natural historian Erik Pontoppidan (1698–1764), the two-volume Norges Naturlige Historie (The natural history of Norway [1752–53]).36 This richly illustrated work was also available in a German trans- lation, to which Hell had access.37 Likewise, the two-volume work of another bishop, Gunnerus’s Flora Norvegica (Norwegian flora [1766–72])38 was likely to have been used as a consistent point of reference, along with various relevant articles in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Sciences in Trondheim, ed- ited by Gunnerus and published in both Danish and an unabridged German 35 Hell to Oeder, dated Vardø, April 6, 1769 (wus, draft): “Algas fucosque, cæterasque Plantas aquaticas.” 36 Available in a facsimile edition, Erik Pontoppidan, Norges Naturlige Historie 1752–53 (Det første Forsøg paa Norges Naturlige Historie, forestillende Dette Kongeriges Luft, Grund, Fiel­ de, Vande, Væxter, Metaller, Mineralier, Steen­ Arter, Dyr, Fugle, Fiske og omsider Indbyg­ gernes Naturel, samt Sædvaner og Levemaade), 2 vols. (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bag- ger, facsimile 1977). An English edition was also published as The Natural History of Norway (London: A. Linde, 1755). 37 Erich Pontoppidan, Versuch einer natürlichen Historie von Norwegen, worinnen die Luft, Grund und Boden, Gewässer, Gewächse, Metalle, Mineralien, Steinarten, Thiere, Vögel, Fische und endlich das Naturel, wie auch die Gewohnheiten und Lebensarten der Einwohner dieses Königreichs beschrieben werden, trans. Johann Adolph Scheiben, 2 vols. (Copenha- gen: Franz Christian Mumme, 1753–54). 38 Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Flora Norvegica: Observationibus praesertim oeconomicis panosque norvegici locupletata, 2 vols. (Trondheim: Typis Vindingianis, 1766–72).