MONOGRAPHS

M. Vargha , L. Patkos

St. Gellert's Hill Observatory's Chronicle

No. 2
Budapest, 1996
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The Correspondence of Johann Pasquich and of Paul Tittel

Preface

The documents described in the following pages have never been published before. They were gathering dust in various Archives all over Europe.

We are publishing these letters because we believe that they contain significant information about the development of astronomy in Hungary. We also hope, that our colleagues abroad will find data of interest to them in these unpublished papers. The authors of these letters, Johann Pasquich and Paul Tittel, directors of the late University Observatory, situated at the top of St Gellert's Hill in Budapest. They received considerable help from the addressees of their letters, famous scientists, such as Carl Friedrich Gauss and Christian Schumacher, who maintained close contact with them.

The splendid "Gellert's Hill Observatory" stood in the very centre of the twin towns of Pest-Buda. It was visible from every part of the city and was a great source of pride for the inhabitants. It was the subject of many contemporary paintings.

Some official documents associated with this observatory are in the custody of the Konkoly Observatory Library and are published in the present work.

Unfortunately the observatory had a very short life, less than fifty years. The building was demolished in 1864 on official orders and the directors did not fare any better. This paper contains some very sad documents. Both Pasquich and Tittel were men of talent and industry, but their oversensitive personalities caused many problems in their lives.

We want to express our gratitude to all those who have helped us in the difficult task of publishing this material, particularly to Dr. K. Haenel of the Gauss Archive (Göttingen) for giving us access to the letters of Pasquich and Tittel, to Frau Helga Döhn, who helped to receive Pasquich's letters from Berlin, and most of all to our friends Katalin Rajczy, Dr. Aurél Ponori Thewrewk and Dr. József Csaba for the tremendous work of corrections. And many thanks to our librarian collegues József Márton and József Horváth for their active co-operation during the preparation of this publication.