Page - 377 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

377Coping with Enlightenments etymology should be understood not merely as “poetic,” but also as “creative.” Thus, the narrative offered in the Historia of a heavenly coup—at first, the con- sent of Uranus to her daughter Urania’s occupation of a position on the firma- ment, then her expulsion by the revolt of Saturn, and finally her liberation and restoration thanks to Herschel’s discovery—has a “mytho-poetic” character: Urania secures a place for the symbolism of astronomy in poetry, as well as one for poetry in the universe of astronomers.122 While this narrative serves to sketch a peculiar cosmology, in the Elegia this cosmology is shown to have an anthropological base: its claim that Adam, the first and prototypical man, was at the same time “the first astronomer,” is the metaphorical formulation of the universal human endeavor of observing and understanding the surrounding cosmos, and thereby achieving ascension and immortality.123 While Hell must have been flattered by Szerdahely’s appreciation and dedi- cation, his own goals in publishing the Buda professor’s poems may have been more down-to-earth. On the one hand, he must have conceived them as strik- ing instruments of canvassing his proposition of the name Urania for the new planet (arguing that Uranus is the progenitor of the heavens, not a part of them). In introducing the Lis astronomorum, he styled himself “Uranophilus Austriacus.” When sending the Ephemerides for 1788 to Kästner, Hell men- tioned that he had sent Bernoulli in Berlin “several copies of the Historia Ura­ niae, and he replied that the academy was pleased to receive them,” and ex- claimed: “What will the renowned Mr. Bode do in his Ephemerides with his Uranus?”124 Hell was eager to learn Kästner’s opinion on the name Urania, adding: The name Uranophilus covers Hell, who took up his lute, abandoned in the most hidden cave of Parnassus since he was forty years old, and sang the Apotheosis of the Muse Urania, whose name is hardly known by the poets of our time. In the Historia Uraniae, which we composed with Mr. Szerdahely, all the ideas are mine, and I have supplied more or less all the notes to it.125 While in the sources available for this study no ventures into poetry by the court astronomer around or before 1760 could be identified, his attempt to 122 Balogh, “Sic itur ad astra,” 109. 123 Balogh, “Sic itur ad astra,” 210. 124 Hell to Kästner in Göttingen, January 26, 1788 (nsubg; Hungarian translation in Csaba, Hell Miksa írásaiból, 59). Bode was the first to suggest the name Uranus for the planet. 125 Hell to Kästner in Göttingen, January 26, 1788 (nsubg; Hungarian translation in Csaba, Hell Miksa írásaiból, 59).