Page - 297 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

297Observing Venus and Debating the Parallax At the end of our analysis of the Arctic expedition and its aftermath, it is tempting to briefly reflect comparatively on the status of Hell’s journey and that of Maupertuis to the same region a good generation earlier.137 Besides the geographic proximity of the targeted area, several other factors warrant such a comparison. In both cases, a savant with already strong credentials and claims to celebrity status on the domestic and international scene ventured into the frost of the north with the goal of solving scientific problems of cosmic signifi- cance: the shape of the Earth in the one case, and the distance of the planet from the center of the solar system in the other. True, Maupertuis was far more successful in publicizing his identity in his Figure de la terre (Shape of the earth [1738]) and other works as a “hero of science” than Hell, whose design of the Expeditio litteraria became frustrated. But it is undeniable that Hell put as great an emphasis as his French predecessor on the combination of scientific expertise, resourcefulness, and accuracy required to meet technical challeng- es, with courage and physical prowess necessary to combat and conquer the adversity of circumstances, in reframing his persona. In this regard, the icono- graphic parallels between the image on our title page and the famous portrait of Maupertuis—originally conceived as a painting, and subsequently repro- duced and distributed in a different version as an engraving138—both of them emphasizing the features just mentioned, are telling. By both Maupertuis and Hell, the good fortune with which their expeditions were ultimately blessed was represented as the reward of their perseverance, although the latter natu- rally accorded divine providence an important role, too—an element unsur- prisingly missing from the accounts of the French libertine. In turn, while the sudden appearance of two “Lappish” (in reality, Swedish) women in Paris shortly after the return of the notorious womanizer of the beau monde gave rise to a flurry of gossip, this could hardly have been imaginable in the case of the Viennese Jesuit. The bitter polemics that ensued around the outcome of both expeditions constitute a further parallel, even though the reasons for and the substance of the debate were rather different. For Maupertuis, the empha- sis on the shape of the Earth as a scientific problem in its own right, to be re- solved by resorting to English instruments and mathematical skills, with a view to developing a distinctively French Newtonian physics, was a means to challenge a set of views and a whole way of life entrenched in the French acad- emy and hallmarked by the Cassini dynasty, for whom the shape of the Earth was also a mere byproduct of a cartographic project pursued over several 137 Terrall, Man Who Flattened the Earth, esp. 88–172, which serve as the chief basis of comparison. 138 See Terrall, Man Who Flattened the Earth, frontispiece and 162.