Page - 337 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

337Disruption of Old Structures in Chapter 2. The latter was also closed not long after the suppression of the Society in 1773. Its last director was almost certainly Anton Mayr (or Mayer [1738–?]).74 Born in Vienna, Mayr entered the Society of Jesus around 1756, held a chair as “professor of higher mathematics” (prof[essor] math[eseos] repet[itae]) in Graz in 1765–72, before being appointed director of the astro- nomical observatory there for the university year 1772–73.75 At the latest by 1776, however, Mayr’s days in Graz were over. His chair was judged to be redun- dant and became abandoned, and the observatory itself was at first closed, and then finally demolished in 1787.76 Mayr returned to Vienna, where he had a short career at the side of Hell: on the title pages of the Ephemerides astronomi- cae for the years 1777 and 1778, he is presented as a calculator of the almanac as well as Hell’s adjunctus. In November 1776, Hell explained to Bernoulli that to replace his two former assistants “I have received only one, the adjunct Anton Mayr. He is an ex-Jesuit, but will need to be instructed in astronomical calcula- tions first” (a rather peculiar comment on an individual who had already served a period as the director of an observatory).77 It appears that these in- structions were no success, for after 1777 Mayr is no longer mentioned as Hell’s assistant in the Ephemerides.78 His subsequent whereabouts are uncertain, ex- cept that he published a book on poisonous frogs in Vienna in 1783. He is said to have died there, but not even the year of death is known.79 The career of another representative of the Graz university, Triesnecker is far better known. Born in Mallon close to Kirchberg am Wagram in Lower Aus- tria, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1761 and studied philosophy in Vienna and mathematics and languages in Trnava. In 1770–71, he taught humanities in Linz before enrolling as a student of theology in Graz. Despite the suppression of the order, von Triesnecker continued his studies to become a doctor of phi- losophy in Graz in 1775. Von Triesnecker’s biographer has not been able to 74 According to Michaela Scheibl at the Universitätsbibliothek Graz, his real name was not Anton, but “Alois Mayr.” Under this name, on April 9, 1774, the ex-Jesuit Mayr was granted a salary of five hundred gulden to serve as professor of astronomy in Graz. Communica- tion by e-mail from Michaela Scheibl to Per Pippin Aspaas, January 17, 2011. 75 Fischer, “Jesuiten-Mathematiker in der Deutschen Assistenz.” 76 Schreiber, “Jesuit Astronomy (Part I),” 16. 77 Hell to Bernoulli in Berlin, dated November 30, 1776 (ubb). 78 It may be this adjunct Father Hell refers to in a letter to Wargentin in Stockholm, dated Vienna, July 29, 1778 (cvh): “Lacking assistance from my adjunct, who is constantly ill, I have not had the time needed to write scientific works.” 79 Information on Anton Mayr, unless otherwise stated, has been found in Cornelia Maria Schörg, “Die Präsenz der Wiener Universitätssternwarte,” 100; Fischer, “Jesuiten-Mathe- matiker in der Deutschen Assistenz” (Schörg has not used Fischer); Wurzbach, Biogra- phisches Lexikon (1868), 18:82–83.