Maximilian Hell (1720–92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe

Per Pippin Aspaas, PhD, with a thesis on Maximilian Hell (2012), is senior academic librarian at UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø). With a background in classical philology as well as the history of science, he has published on various branches of early modern science and the uses of neo-Latin.László Kontler, PhD (1996), is professor of history at Central European University (Budapest/Vienna). He has published on intellectual history, the history of political thought, translation and reception, and scientific knowledge production, including Translations, Histories, Enlightenments: William Robertson in Germany, 1760–1795 (Palgrave, 2014).

“This book is a careful and valuable source for historians of science interested in ways in which the Enlightenment affected the practice of science in the more remote lands of the Habsburg empire.”J. L. Heilbron, University of California–Berkeley. In: Church History, Vol. 89, No. 4 (December 2020), pp. 953–955.“Maximilian Hell (1720–92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe is a valuable contribution that provides an impressive account of the neglected aspects of the East Central European Enlightenment.”Tibor Bodnár-Király, Eötvös Loránd University. In: Austrian History Yearbook, Vol. 52 (2021), pp. 15–16.“This monograph is essential for any study of the history of European astronomy and of Jesuit science.”Agustín Udías, Universidad Complutense. In: Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (December 2020), pp. 111–113. “Hell’s vitriolic responses to public criticism, the familiar stereotype of the dissembling Jesuit, and the implosion and suppression of the Order in 1773 [...] undermined his reputation. While not formulated as a rehabilitation, Maximilian Hell (1720–92) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe undoes much of that damage, showing the attractive aspects of this figure — as, for instance, his collaboration with the gifted painter Caspar Franz Sambach — and the considerable constraints under which Hell worked. Of particular value is the sustained and enlightening comparison of the Jesuits and their curious double, the Freemasons.”Eileen Reeves, Princeton. In: Isis, Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 2021), pp. 607–609.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsBibliographic AbbreviationsIntroduction1 Enlightenment(s)2 Catholic Enlightenment—Enlightenment Catholicism3 The Society of Jesus and Jesuit Science4 What’s in a Life?1 Shafts and Stars, Crafts and Sciences: The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces1 A Regional Life World2 Turbulent Times and an Immigrant Family around the Mines3 Apprenticeship4 Professor on the Frontier2 Metropolitan Lures: Enlightened and Jesuit Networks, and a New Node of Science1 An Agenda for Astronomic Advance2 Science in the City and in the World: Hell and the respublica astronomica3 A New Node of Science in Action: The 1761 Transit of Venus and Hell’s Transition to Fame1 A Golden Opportunity2 An Imperial Astronomer’s Network Displayed3 Lessons Learned4 “Quonam autem fructu?” Taking Stock4 The North Beckons: “A desperate voyage by desperate persons”1 Scandinavian Self-Assertions2 The Invitation from Copenhagen: Providence and Rhetoric3 From Vienna to Vardø5 He Came, He Saw, He Conquered? The Expeditio litteraria ad Polum Arcticum1 A Journey Finished and Yet Unfinished2 Enigmas of the Northern Sky and Earth3 On Hungarians and Laplanders4 Authority Crumbling6 “Tahiti and Vardø will be the two columns […]”: Observing Venus and Debating the Parallax1 Mission Accomplished2 Accomplishment Contested3 A Peculiar Nachleben7 Disruption of Old Structures1 Habsburg Centralization and the De-centering of Hell2 Critical Publics: Vienna, Hungary3 Ex-Jesuit Astronomy: Institutions and Trajectories8 Coping with Enlightenments1 Viennese Struggles2 Redefining the CenterConclusion: Borders and CrossingsAppendix 1Map of the Austrian Province of the Society of Jesus, with Glossary of Geographic NamesAppendix 2Instruction for the Imperial and Royal Astronomer Maximilian Hell, S.J.BibliographyIndex