Page - 334 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Chapter 7334 1799, he left a large collection of manuscripts from his surveys in Galicia. How- ever, just as earlier, he did not submit any observations from Lviv to the Ephe- merides astronomicae edited by Hell and then von Triesnecker. Back in Vienna, the Jesuit observatory seems not to have been manned at all after Liesganig’s departure for Lviv in 1774. In a much later letter to Weiss, Hell explains that “I have managed to save the observatory of the Viennese academic collegium, which surely, in case I had been absent from Vienna at that time, would have been removed and demolished, because the architect had misunderstood the words of the emperor.”65 The Jesuit observatory is described as still in existence in Pilgram’s work on meteorology published in 1788. Exactly when it was de- molished is not known.66 As to Hell’s action to preserve it, this may be inter- preted as a sign of his hopes that the Society of Jesus would one day be restored and activities resumed at the former observatories.67 Before the suppression, the Society of Jesus had been in a position to con- struct observatories and equip them with instruments and personnel by its own means. Although the growth around 1750 was followed by a period of standstill, it remains a fact that between 1745 and 1756 the number of Jesuit observatories grew from one (Vienna) to three (Graz and Trnava added). In the course of the 1750s, the Benedictines constructed their sole observatory in Kremsmünster, led by Fixlmillner, and the state funded the Imperial and Royal Observatory in Vienna, headed by the Jesuit Hell. No major expansions appear to have taken place during the 1760s. Just on the threshold of the calamity of 1773, however, the Jesuits found that the time was ripe for new establishments. observatory existed in Lviv “since long before the Austrian occupation of Galicia and Lodomeria in the year 1772.” As proof, von Zach points to the observation of a solar eclipse made by Hell’s former student Lysogorski in 1764. It was this same Lysogorski that had left Vienna for Lviv in 1761, allegedly equipped with a decent set of instruments, but he seems never to have fulfilled Hell’s high hopes as stated in his 1761 Venus transit report (cf. above, Chapter 3). Thus, according to the authors of the article “First Astronomical Observatory in Lviv” (S. Apunevych et al., in Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies 27, no. 5 [2011]: 265–72), Lysogorski’s observations were made from the mansion of Archbishop Siera- kowski, whereas the date of foundation of the Jesuit observatory was as late as May 15, 1771, without Lysogorski playing a part. Instead, a certain Ludwik Hoszowski (1732–after 1773) served as professor of mathematics at the Jesuit college in Lviv from 1769 to 1773 ac- cording to Fischer, “Die Jesuiten-Mathematiker des Nordostdeutschen Kulturgebietes,” 139–47. During 1771–73, Hoszowski was also entered in the Jesuit catalogs as professor of astronomy and prefect of the “mathematical museum” in Lviv. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus, Hoszowski left for an ecclesiastical post in Przemysl and seems never to have become part of the team around Liesganig. 65 Hell to Weiss, dated Vienna, November 12, 1783 (Vargha priv.). 66 Steinmayr, “Geschichte der Universitätssternwarte,” 178. 67 Cf. Hell’s letter to Bernoulli in Berlin, dated Vienna, February 15, 1777 (ubb).