Page - 343 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

343Disruption of Old Structures of its allegedly non-utilitarian character. We have seen that although Hell lin- gered in Vienna, Liesganig and Weiss were moved to Lviv and Buda, respec- tively, upon orders from the state, and at least in the case of the former in- volved in a project immediately serving practical purposes of the state. None of these three places are indeed likely to have been particularly welcoming to “new men” in astronomy; there were enough former Jesuits around to recruit for the few vacancies that existed. Altogether, it would be harsh to subscribe to von Zach’s verdict that the nepotism of ex-Jesuits was the main problem. If the observatory of Buda is discounted as a replacement for that of Trnava, we find that the only new facility for institutional astronomy created in the former Austrian province of the Society of Jesus in the fifteen years following the year 1773 was founded and funded not by the modernizing state, but by Eszterházy, the conservative bishop of Eger in eastern Hungary. In the last chapter, we shall examine the development of Hell’s relationship with this new hero of his, be- sides pursuing the imperial astronomer in the labyrinths of metropolitan and provincial politics and controversies during the final period of his career.