Page - 369 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

369Coping with Enlightenments Besides this geographic reorientation, there was still an attempt made at coherently organizing the material collected during the Arctic expedition, as already discussed in Chapter 5. As regards the observation data, one conspicu- ous development is the proliferation of material from Scandinavia: besides Co- penhagen, we find Lund, Roskilde, Trondheim, Iceland, and Greenland as new source locations. In addition, astronomical activity in Germany and the Habsburg monarchy was vigorously promoted in the appendices of the Ephe­ merides during the last fifteen years of Hell’s life. Besides some German venues, striking presences are—naturally—Vienna, besides Prague and Kremsmün- ster. Above all, however, Hell was careful to emphasize the achievements of Trnava, Buda, and Eger. To a considerable extent, the explanation of these shifts of emphasis is quite evident: while some links of the Jesuit chain became broken and Hell had to cook with what he had been left, the new Scandinavian contacts partially made up for the loss. What deserves attention is the surge in the representa- tion of astronomical activity in Hungary, not only and necessarily in the vol- ume of reporting but its hyper-enthusiastic tone. Being confronted with new realities and pressures in the imperial center—still a high-level state servant, but deprived of the institutional (and spiritual) leverage of his order, with cer- tain avenues of government patronage blocked before him, and unprotected against attacks in the arising local public sphere—Hell appealed to the corners of the realm he had learned to love and appreciate during his highly mobile early career, and began extolling their virtues internationally through the Ephemerides. The astronomical journey of 1776 was in a sense a revisiting of these roots in the northern and eastern parts of the Hungarian half of the Habsburg monar- chy, combined with the pleasing awareness—amply expressed in the report published in the Ephemerides—that the creation of new observatory towers there, together with the already existing ones, might elevate the status of these parts as a power to reckon with in the discipline. On this journey, Hell had a companion: Madarassy, sent in 1774 to study with him in Vienna by Bishop Eszterházy, who had been in contact with Hell for a decade by then.91 In Esz- terházy, perhaps the most erudite churchman of eighteenth-century Hungary while a stout opponent of the Viennese reforms,92 the court astronomer must 91 See above, 130 and 353. 92 For the bigger picture on the position of Hungarian bishops vis-à-vis Viennese policies throughout the eighteenth century, see Joachim Bahlcke, Ungarischer Episkopat und ös­ terreichische Monarchie: Von einer Partnerschaft zur Konfrontation (1686–1790) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005).