Seite - 93 - in Maximilian Hell (1720–92) - And the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

93Enlightened and Jesuit Networks, and a New Node of Science ubiquitous Franz. As for timing, the loss of Marinoni, who despite his advanced age may have been the obvious choice for the newly created position, opened the floor for another candidate. Hell happened to be exactly the right age and had the requisite qualifications: sufficiently young and robust, and at the same time sufficiently experienced to be entrusted with this prestigious task. Yet, at this point, it is again noteworthy that the candidate chosen was a Je- suit: had there been a strong desire or a concerted master plan to consistently dismantle the Society’s influence in Vienna, this would have been an opportu- nity to look elsewhere. During the late 1740s and early 1750s, the supposedly more reform-minded Benedictines of the Habsburg monarchy,7 though cer- tainly not on a par with the Jesuits in this regard, also became highly active in the cultivation of astronomy. In 1746–48, plans were conceived for erecting a “mathematical tower” at Kremsmünster, one of their wealthiest monasteries, at that time led by the influential abbot Alexander Fixlmillner (1686–1759). Though the construction took much longer than in the case of the new Vien- nese observatory, by the time it was completed in 17588 the result was a truly impressive, forty-seven-meter high structure of seven stories serving the pur- poses of “all kinds of natural science, astronomy as well as geo-science, seis- mology and meteorology.”9 Several learned Benedictines well versed in math- ematics and astronomy participated in the planning and the execution of the project,10 including Anselm Desing (1699–1772) and Eugen Dobler (1714–96), the latter also serving as the first director of the mathematical tower. Kremsmünster also boasted the man who, besides Hell, has been hailed as one of the two “founders of modern astronomy in Austria.”11 Placidus Fixlmill- ner (1721–91), after studies at the Benedictine University of Salzburg, settled for 7 On the “Benedictine Enlightenment,” see Cornelia Faustmann, Gottfried Glassner, and Thomas Wallnig, eds., Melk in der barocken Gelehrtenrepublik: Die Brüder Pez, ihre Netz- werke und Forschungen (Melk: Stift Melk, 2014); Thomas Wallnig, “Franz Stephan Rauten- strauch (1734–1785),” in Lehner and Burson, Enlightenment and Catholicism, 209–25. 8 However, it may not have been ready for observations until 1760. See Rabenalt, “Astrono- mische Forschung,” 97. For a contemporaneous account, see Placidus Fixlmillner’s “Kurze Geschichte und Beschreibung der Sternwarte zu Kremsmünster (nebst drey Kupferplat- ten),” in Jean (Johann) iii Bernoulli, Sammlung kurzer Reisebeschreibungen und anderer zur Erweiterung der Länder- und Menschenkenntniß dienender Nachrichten, Vierter Band (Berlin: Bey dem Herausgeber, 1784), 373–81. 9 Wolfschmidt, “Cultural Heritage and Architecture,” 7. 10 This uniquely well-documented process is described in fascinating detail in Johann- Christian Klamt, Sternwarte und Museum im Zeitalter der Aufklärung: Der Mathematische Turm zu Kremsmünster (1749–1758) (Mainz: Zabern, 1999). 11 Konradin Ferrari d’Occhieppo, “Maximilian Hell und Placidus Fixlmillner: Die Begründer der neueren Astronomie in Österreich,” in Österreichische Naturforscher, Ärzte und Tech- niker, ed. Fritz Knoll (Vienna: Verlag der Gesellschaft für Natur und Technik, 1957), 27–31.