Page - 236 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 5236 correlation between the Hungarian and Lappish language, which Honor­ able Father Hell had formed in his mind already beforehand, from reading the “Lapponia” of Schefferus and the “Geographia” of Büsching, a conjec- ture he had mentioned to me every so often during the journey [empha- sis added].80 Hell now appears explicitly as not merely a constant source of support but as the fons et origo of the linguistic endeavor of the Vardø expedition. His direct involvement in the project is also stressed by changing “an occasion for a Hun- garian [Ungaro] to visit the Lapps” in the first edition to the plural (Ungaris) in the second. An extant draft in Hell’s own hand, intended to be sent to Sajnovics in the winter of 1770–71, demonstrates that these changes were introduced in the Trnava edition upon Hell’s own explicit instruction: In the preface to the Royal Society [of Copenhagen] // After the words: “Imperial and Royal Astronomer from the University of Vienna” [add the following], “also a Hungarian by nation, invited to Vardøhus by the re- doubtable Majesty King Christian vii of Denmark and Norway in order to observe the transit of Venus in front of the disc of the Sun. Since the same Hell, formerly my teacher in astronomical subjects, had chosen me as his travel companion in order to assist him in his astronomical tasks and in particular the examination of the Lappish language, I set off for Finnmark, where I spent about a year. // For on this occasion, it was pos- sible for Hungarians to spend time among the Lapps; on this occasion, it was possible to put to the test Father Hell’s conjecture, which he based upon the Geographia of Büsching and the Lapponia of Schefferus and which he had frequently mentioned to me during the journey […].”81 As a result of the additions and the small amendments in the second edition, Hell emerges as not only the initiator but the permanent guiding spirit of and an equal, even principal contributor to the research. He now appears also to have been the one who introduced Sajnovics to the method of comparison: “In his leisure hours, he joined me, studied the Nomenclator [the 1756 Danish–Lap- pish dictionary of Leem] with me, searched for words and interpreted them.”82 He is credited with having directed the work of data collection by putting 80 Sajnovics, Demonstratio (1771), [xi–xii], cf. 22. 81 “Jn adlocutione ad Societatem Regiam,” Manuscripte Hell, wus. Digitized in Aspaas, “Maximilianus Hell,” 126–7. 82 Sajnovics, Demonstratio (1771), 23.