Maximilian Hell
Encyclopedia
Maximilian Hell, S.J. (May 15, 1720 – April 14, 1792) was a Hungarian astronomer
and an ordained Jesuit
priest
from the Kingdom of Hungary
.
, Kingdom of Hungary
(present-day Banská Štiavnica
, Slovakia
). Höll later changed his surname to Hell. He was the third son from the second marriage of his father. He had 21 brothers and sisters. His father was Matthias Cornelius Hell (Matthäus Kornelius Hell). The place of birth of Maximilian's father is unknown; the settlements Körmöcbánya
(today Kremnica
), Schlagenwald
, (today Horní Slavkov
) or Schlackenwerth (today Ostrov nad Ohří) are most frequently given. Born in a mixed German, Hungarian and Slovak town, he presumably knew Slovak to a certain extent and he probably understood Hungarian, but his mother tongue was German
. Even so, Hell considered himself a Hungarian. Hell with another Jesuit priest, János Sajnovics
tried to explore the already widely discussed but insufficiently documented affinity between the language of the Sami
, Finns and the Hungarians during and after their residency in Vardø
. (Demonstratio idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse, 1770 Copenhagen)
Hell became the director of the Vienna Observatory
in 1756. He published the astronomical tables Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonemsem ("Ephemerides for the Meridian of Vienna"). He and his assistant János Sajnovics
went to Vardø
in the far north of Norway
(then part of Denmark
) to observe the 1769 transit of Venus
. He was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
on October 13 1769. This society also funded the publication of his 1770 account of the Venus passage Observatio transitus Veneris ante discum Solis die 3. Junii anno 1769 (Copenhagen, 1770).
There was some controversy about Hell's observations of the transit of Venus because he stayed in Norway for eight months, collecting non-astronomical scientific data about the arctic regions for a planned encyclopedia (which never appeared, in part due to the suppression of the Jesuit order
). The publication of his results was delayed, and some (notably Joseph Johann Littrow
) accused Hell posthumously of falsifying his results. However, Simon Newcomb
carefully studied Hell's notebooks and exonerated him a century after his death in Vienna
.
Besides astronomy
, Hell also had an interest in magnet therapy
(the alleged healing power of magnets), although it was Franz Anton Mesmer who went further with this and received most of the credit.
In 1771, Hell was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
.
The crater Hell
on the Moon
is named after him.
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and an ordained Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
from the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
.
Biography
Hell was born Maximilian Höll in SelmesbányaBanská Štiavnica
Banská Štiavnica is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as Štiavnica Mountains. Banská Štiavnica has a population of more than 10,000. It is a completely preserved medieval town...
, Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
(present-day Banská Štiavnica
Banská Štiavnica
Banská Štiavnica is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as Štiavnica Mountains. Banská Štiavnica has a population of more than 10,000. It is a completely preserved medieval town...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
). Höll later changed his surname to Hell. He was the third son from the second marriage of his father. He had 21 brothers and sisters. His father was Matthias Cornelius Hell (Matthäus Kornelius Hell). The place of birth of Maximilian's father is unknown; the settlements Körmöcbánya
Kremnica
Kremnica is a town in central Slovakia. It has some 5,700 inhabitants. The well-preserved medieval town built above important gold mines is the site of the oldest still-working mint in the world.-History:...
(today Kremnica
Kremnica
Kremnica is a town in central Slovakia. It has some 5,700 inhabitants. The well-preserved medieval town built above important gold mines is the site of the oldest still-working mint in the world.-History:...
), Schlagenwald
Horní Slavkov
Horní Slavkov is a town in Sokolov District, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,910 .-See also:*Porcelain manufacturing companies in Europe...
, (today Horní Slavkov
Horní Slavkov
Horní Slavkov is a town in Sokolov District, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,910 .-See also:*Porcelain manufacturing companies in Europe...
) or Schlackenwerth (today Ostrov nad Ohří) are most frequently given. Born in a mixed German, Hungarian and Slovak town, he presumably knew Slovak to a certain extent and he probably understood Hungarian, but his mother tongue was German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Even so, Hell considered himself a Hungarian. Hell with another Jesuit priest, János Sajnovics
János Sajnovics
János Sajnovics de Tordas et Káloz was a Hungarian linguist and Jesuit. He is best known for his pioneering work in comparative linguistics, particularly his systematic demonstratation of the relationship between Sami and Hungarian....
tried to explore the already widely discussed but insufficiently documented affinity between the language of the Sami
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
, Finns and the Hungarians during and after their residency in Vardø
Vardø
is a town and a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeast part of Norway.Vardø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The law required that all cities should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was...
. (Demonstratio idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse, 1770 Copenhagen)
Hell became the director of the Vienna Observatory
Vienna Observatory
Universitäts-Sternwarte Wien is an astronomical observatory in Vienna, Austria. It is part of the University of Vienna. The first observatory was built in 1753–1754 on the roof of one of the university buildings....
in 1756. He published the astronomical tables Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonemsem ("Ephemerides for the Meridian of Vienna"). He and his assistant János Sajnovics
János Sajnovics
János Sajnovics de Tordas et Káloz was a Hungarian linguist and Jesuit. He is best known for his pioneering work in comparative linguistics, particularly his systematic demonstratation of the relationship between Sami and Hungarian....
went to Vardø
Vardø
is a town and a municipality in Finnmark county in the extreme northeast part of Norway.Vardø was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The law required that all cities should be separated from their rural districts, but because of a low population and very few voters, this was...
in the far north of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
(then part of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
) to observe the 1769 transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
. He was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is a Danish non-governmental science Academy, founded 13 November 1742 by permission of the King Christian VI, as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum...
on October 13 1769. This society also funded the publication of his 1770 account of the Venus passage Observatio transitus Veneris ante discum Solis die 3. Junii anno 1769 (Copenhagen, 1770).
There was some controversy about Hell's observations of the transit of Venus because he stayed in Norway for eight months, collecting non-astronomical scientific data about the arctic regions for a planned encyclopedia (which never appeared, in part due to the suppression of the Jesuit order
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
). The publication of his results was delayed, and some (notably Joseph Johann Littrow
Joseph Johann Littrow
Joseph Johann von Littrow was an Austrian astronomer. In 1837, he was ennobled with the title Joseph Johann Edler von Littrow. He was the father of Karl Ludwig Edler von Littrow and the mentor of the mathematician Nikolai Brashman...
) accused Hell posthumously of falsifying his results. However, Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...
carefully studied Hell's notebooks and exonerated him a century after his death in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
.
Besides astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, Hell also had an interest in magnet therapy
Magnet therapy
Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine practice involving the use of static magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets has beneficial health effects...
(the alleged healing power of magnets), although it was Franz Anton Mesmer who went further with this and received most of the credit.
In 1771, Hell was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
.
The crater Hell
Hell (crater)
Hell is a lunar crater in the south of the Moon's near side, within the western half of the enormous walled plain Deslandres. To the southeast, also within Deslandres, is the larger crater Lexell, and about 9° to the south lies the prominent Tycho crater. The crater received its name in 1935 after...
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
is named after him.
Works
- Elementa Algebrae Joannis Crivelli magis illustrata et novis demonstrationibus et problematibus aucta. Vindobonae, 1745. (Book of Joannis Crivelli, updated by Maximilian Hell)
- Adiumentum Memoriae manuale chronologico-genealogico-historicum. München, 1750 és Ingolstadt, 1763.
- Compendia varia praxesque operationum arithmeticarum, itemque regulae aureae simplicis compositae etc. cumprimis ad usus mercatorum et civiles applicatae. Claudiopoli, 1755.
- Elementa mathematica naturali philosophiae ancillantia ad praefixam in scholis normam concinnata. I. Elementa Arithmeticae numericae et litteralis seu Algebrae. Claudiopoli, 1755.
- Exercitationum mathematicarum partes tres. Vindobonae, 1755.
- Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonensem. Vindobonae 1756-1793.
- Exercitationum mathematicarum partes tres, una cum Exercitationibus arithmeticis et regula Rabbatae, Anatocismi et iuris civilis de quarta Falcidia. Viennae, 1759.
- Elementa Algebrae Authore R. P. Maximiliano Hell e S. J. Posnaniae, typis S. J. 1760.
- Dissertatio complectens calculos accuratissimos transitus Veneris per discum Solis in tertiam Iuni 1769. praedicti, methodosque varias observationem hanc instituendi. Viennae, 1760.
- Kurzer Unterricht der Oster-Feyer für den ungelehrten, gemeinen Mann, samt der gründlichen Wiederlegung einer Schrift, welche Herr Christoph Sigismund Schumacher, Calender-Schreiber in Dresden unter den Innschrift: Untersuchung der Oster-Feyer von anno 1700 bis 2500 verfasst u. anno 1760 in Druck gegeben hat. Wien, 1760.
- Introductio ad utilem usum Magnetis ex chalybe. Viennae, 1762.
- Transitus Veneris ante discum Solis anni 1761. die Astron. 5. Junii calculis definitus et methodo observandi illustratus a Max. Hell S. J. Vindobonae, é.n.
- Tabulae Solares ad Meridianum Parisianum, quas novissimis suis observationibus deduxit vir celeberrimus Nicolaus Ludovicus de Caille… Cum supplemento reliquarum tabularum solarium, quas supputavit Maximilianus Hell Astronomus Caesareo-Regius. Editio post primam Parisianam anni 1758 altera et auctior. Vindobonae, 1763.
- Tabulae lunares ad meridianum Parisianum, quas supputavit vir Cl. Tobias Mayer. - cum supplemento reliquarum tabularum Lunarium D. Cassini, de la Lande et P. Hell. Bécs, 1763.
- Tabulae planetarum Saturni, Jovis, Martis, Veneris et Mercurii ad Meridianum Parisianum, quas supputavit vir cel. D. Ioannes Cassini … correctis typi erroribus et adiectis tabulis perturbationum, aberrationum et nutationum D. de la Lande, D. Euleri, D. Mayer cum earumdem praeceptis concinnatis a P. Max. Hell. Viennae, 1763.
- Dissertatio de satellite Veneris a pluribus Astronomis viso, illusione optica. Viennae, 1765.
- Elogium Rustici Tyrolensis Petri Anich Oberperfuessensis coloni, tornatoris etc. Viennae, 1766.
- Observationes astronomicae ab anno 1717. ad annum 1752. a patribus Soc. Jesu Kögler etc. Pekini factae et a P. Augustino Hallerstein S. J. Tribunalis mathematici Praeside 1772 collectae, ac in Europam missae. Ad fidem autographi Manuscripti edidit P. Hell. Viennae, 1768.
- Observatio transitus Veneris ante discum Solis die 3. Junii anno 1769. Wardoëhusii etc. Hafniae, 1770.
- Dissertatio de parallaxi Solis ex Observationibus Transitus Veneris 1769. Viennae, 1772.
- Methodus astronomica sine usu Quadrantis vel Sectoris aut alterius cuiusvis instrumenti in gradus circuli divisi … elevationem cujusvis in continente siti loci accuratissime determinandi. Wien, 1775.
- Max Hell's Schreiben über die alhier in Wien entdeckte Magnetenkur, an einen seiner Freunde. Wien, 1775.
- Unpartheiischer Bericht der alhier gemachten Entdeckungen der künstlichen Stahlmagneten in verschiedenen Nervenkrankheiten. Wien, 1775.
- Erklärung über das zweite Schreiben Herrn D. Mesmers die Magnetenkur betreffend an das Publikum. Wien, 1775.
- Von der wahren Grösse, die der Durchmesser des vollen Mondes zu haben scheint, wenn man mit freyem Auge ansieht. (Beyträge zu den verschiedenen Wissenschaften, 1775.)
- Monumenta aere perenniora inter astra ponenda etc. Wien, 1789.
- Tabula geographica Ungariae veteris ex historia Anonymi Belae regi notarii. Pestini, 1801.
- Sacharum praeservativum adversus scorbutum cum Epistola D. Alberitz Med. Doctoris. (?)