Page - 335 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

335Disruption of Old Structures Enlightened interest in astronomy certainly peaked around the transit of Ve- nus in 1769, and when Hell returned as an explorer of worldwide reputation in the following year, the conditions for a revitalization of institutional astrono- my were probably as good as they could ever become. The failure to finalize the construction of an observatory even by this time at the Jesuit college of Cluj, where Hell had been appointed to oversee it in the 1750s, has already been mentioned. That of Buda, the old capital of the King- dom of Hungary, is a similar story. A Jesuit convent was established there al- most immediately after the liberation of the town from the Ottomans in 1686, and a college was in full operation by 1701. The first professor of mathematics was appointed there in 1744, and soon after Hell and Sajnovics returned from their expedition, the post was given to Sajnovics. At the same time, plans were being laid to make the former assistant of both Hell (Vienna, Vardø) and Weiss (Trnava) the director of a new Jesuit observatory in conjunction with the Buda college.68 With scarcely concealed pride, Sajnovics exclaimed: “I am destined to become a professor in Buda, where I am supposed to lay the foundations for practical astronomy. In this way, I hope to become the royal astronomer of Hungary, which is the most illustrious title I can ever imagine.”69 In the above- mentioned letter to Bernoulli, Hell explains that as the suppression of the So- ciety arrived in 1773, everything was ready, the funds had been secured, and Sajnovics appointed for the job of supervising the construction.70 Evidently, the suppression of the Society of Jesus brought these plans to a halt. At the dawn of the 1770s, the Jesuits did not limit themselves to their plans for expansion in Cluj and Buda, but also promoted developments outside their own ranks. While the Benedictines founded and maintained a high-standard observatory in Kremsmünster, the historiography on the order’s role in the his- tory of Central European astronomy is meager. It is clear, though, that the pressure of the anti-monastic sentiment gaining currency in the period had consequences in this regard, too. An attempt was made in the late 1760s and early 1770s to establish an observatory at the splendid Benedictine monastery of Melk,71 whose abbot tried to set in place various innovations in order to give 68 In a letter to Weiss, dated Vienna, May 24, 1771, Hell wrote (Vargha priv.; also found in Pinzger, Hell Miksa, 2:106): “I have not yet been able to discuss the Buda observatory with the honorable pater provincialis [i.e., the head of the Austrian Society of Jesus]. I would really hope that astronomy may be cultivated in the very same place that I, as a teacher of mathematics so long ago, had planned to become my workplace.” 69 Sajnovics to János Nagy, dated Trnava, May 12, 1771, facsimile in Kisbán, Sajnovics, 40–41. 70 Hell to Bernoulli in Berlin, dated Vienna, February 15, 1777 (ubb). 71 Gottfried Glaβner and Christina Preiner, “‘[…] Physica autem sine omni experimento sicca sit et sterilis’: Warum im Jahr 1771 trotz guter Argumente der Plan, in Melk eine