Page - 332 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 7332 some others even ended up as bishops or senior officials in the state bureaucracy.59 In the strictest sense, the positive assessment of the prospects of “ex-Jesuit astronomy” is not far from the truth. Despite radical changes in the institu- tional organization of science in the Habsburg lands in the wake of the year 1773, the Imperial and Royal Observatory of Vienna remained intact. The num- ber of assistants may have been reduced, but the court astronomer himself sat safe in his chair. While his colleagues abroad feared that the Ephemerides might be discontinued or the Imperial Observatory shut down,60 nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the annual volumes of the Viennese almanac were churned out of the press as before (albeit, as we shall see, with some significant changes of emphasis in content), with supplements presenting long lists of observations as well as theoretically ambitious treatises.61 It is also important, however, to listen to Hell’s laments concerning the impact of the Society’s sup- pression, which were quite frequent. In one of these, he wrote in 1790: As a result of this dissolution of the Society of Jesus, I was utterly de- prived of all those assistants and adjuncts, paid by the Society of Jesus, who used to aid me in my astronomical duties and activities. Thus, by my own efforts solely and uniquely I must both do the calculations for the annual Ephemerides astronomicae and preside over their publication, as well as take care of the planning, conducting, and continuation of astro- nomical observations, and even take care of my scientific correspon- dence with astronomers all over Europe (in addition to Beijing in China); and whatever other astronomical tasks that called for my attention, must be done without any assistants or adjuncts, solely and uniquely by myself. Unlikely Settings,” in O’Malley et al., Jesuits, 2:772–83. But even for those who stayed in Central and Western Europe, the survival of the Society in the East was of symbolic im- portance: devout ex-Jesuits—Hell among them—looked to Prussia and especially Russia for comfort. 59 Besides Haberzettl, Stellung der Exjesuiten, see Trampus, I gesuiti e l’Illuminismo; Müller, “Der Jesuitenorden und die Aufklärung”; and Ritchie Robertson, “Curiosity in the Austrian Enlightenment,” Oxford German Studies 38 (2009): 129–42. 60 See, e.g., Bernoulli, Nouvelles littéraires 1 (1776): 9–10. 61 There were some difficulties, though, with the production. In the mid-1770s, a conflict of interest seemed to arise between Hell and the publisher, on which see the discussion of Hell’s scientific academy plans below. A decade later, Hell complained about the “chaos” arising in the printing house from the frequent changes of the workers, and the extra burden resulting from his own agreement to publish the Ephemerides not one but two years in advance of the given year. Hell to Kästner in Göttingen, March 6, 1786 (nsubg; see Hungarian translation in Csaba, Hell Miksa írásaiból, 58).