Brokering Instruments in Napoleon's Europe: The Italian Journeys of Franz Xaver von Zach (1807–1814)

Summary

This paper explores the interactions between scientific travel, politics, instrument making and the epistemology of scientific instruments in Napoleon's Europe. In the early 1800s, the German astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach toured Italy and Southern France with instruments made by G. Reichenbach in his newly-established Bavarian workshop. I argue that von Zach acted as a broker for German technology and science and that travel, personal contacts and direct demonstrations were crucial in establishing Reichenbach's reputation and in conquering new markets. The rise of German instrument making highlights the complexity of the scientific relationship between the centre and the peripheries in Napoleon's empire, and reveals the existence of diverging views on the role of instruments and of their makers. In von Zach's view, Reichenbach's instruments could not penetrate the French market because Parisian astronomers focused on mathematical astronomy and, for both political and epistemological reasons, dismissed instruments and material innovations from the peripheries. The German astronomer and his Italian colleagues, on the contrary, regarded Reichenbach's technical achievements as outstanding contributions to astronomy, and considered the political and cultural hegemony of the capital as a hindrance to the advancement of science.

Notes

¹ J. Delbourgo, S. Schaffer, L. Roberts and K. Raj, eds., The Brokered World. Go-Betweens and Global Intelligence, 1770–1820 (Science History Publications, 2009). S. Schaffer has recently analysed the ‘troubles’ of long-range scientific instrument trade: S. Schaffer, ‘The Bombay Case: Astronomers, Instruments Makers and the East India Company’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 43, part 2 (May 2012), 151–80. See also: Kapil Raj, ‘Introduction: circulation and locality in early modern science’, British Journal for the History of Science, 43, no. 159 (December 2010), 513–7.

² Among recent literature on Magalhaes (or Magellan): A. Carneiro, A. Simoes and M. P. Diogo, ‘Enlightenment Science in Portugal: the Estrangeirados and Their Communication Networks’, Social Studies of Science, 30, no. 4 (August 2000), 591–619; S. F. Mason, ‘Jean Hyacinth de Magellan, FRS, and the Chemical Revolution of the 18^th Century’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 45 (1991), 155–64; I.M. Malaquias and M.F. Malaquias, Scientific Communication in the 18^th Century: the Case of John Hyacinth de Magellan, Physis, 31 (1994), 817–34.

³ P. Bertucci, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Id., ‘Medical and Animal Electricity in the works of Tiberio Cavallo’, in Luigi Galvani International Workshop. Proceedings, edited by M. Bresadola and G. Pancaldi, Bologna Studies in the History of Science, 7, Bologna 1999 147–66. While not directly related to the scientific instrument trade, Paola Bertucci's recent work is an essential reading on travel and technological transfer in Enlightenment Europe: P. Bertucci, ‘Enlightened Secrets. Silk, intelligent travel and industrial espionage in eighteenth-century France’, Technology and Culture n. 54 (Oct. 2013).

⁴ K. Gavroglu and others, ‘Science and Technology in the European Periphery: some Historiographical Reflections’, History of Science, XLVI (2008), 153–75 (154). See also: C.W.J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment. Thinking geographically about the Age of Reason (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press: 2007).

⁵ J. Delbourgo, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006); D. Bleichmar, Visible Empire. Botanic Expeditions and the Visual Culture in Hispanic Enlightenment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012). With particular reference to the Italian case: I. Dal Prete, Scienza e Società nel Settecento Veneto ( Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2008).

⁶ See D. Howse, ‘The Greenwich list of observatories: a world list of astronomical observatories, instruments and clocks, 1670–1850’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 17, part 4 (November 1986, special issue).

⁷ J.A. Bennet, ‘The English Quadrant in Europe: Instruments and the Growth of Consensus in Practical Astronomy’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 23, 1 (February 1992), 1–14; A. Chapman, Dividing the circle. The development of critical angular measurement in Astronomy 1500–1850 (John Wiley and Sons, 1990).

⁸ On the market for scientific instruments at the end of the 18th century: J.A. Bennet, ‘Shopping for Instruments in Paris and London’, Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe, edited by P.H. Smith and P. Findlen (New York and London, 2002), 370–95. On the astronomical and technological travels of Italian astronomers to Paris and London: R. Pasta, Scienza Politica Rivoluzione. L'opera di Giovanni Fabbroni (1752–1822), intellettuale e funzionario al servizio dei Lorena (Firenze: Olschki, 1989); A. Mandrino, G. Tagliaferri and P. Tucci, eds., Un viaggio in Europa nel 1786: diario di viaggio di Barnaba Oriani astronomo Milanese (Firenze: Olschki, 1994).

⁹ On Lenoir and scientific instrument making in France between 18th and 19th century: A.J. Turner, From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security. Etienne Lenoir and the transformation of precision instrument-making in France: 1760–1830 (Cambridge: The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1989). See also: M. Daumas, Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (New York: Praegers, 1972) (first French edition: 1953).

¹⁰ F. Chiminello to A. Cesaris, Padua, December 1, 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

¹¹ A. Brachner, ‘German Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments Makers’, in Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and their Makers, edited by P.R. de Clerq (Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V., 1985), 117–57 (118, 127–8); M.W. Jackson, Spectrum of Belief. Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000), 54–6; Daumas, 1972, 255.

¹² Jackson, 2000, 7.

¹³ Jackson, 2000, 51–6.

¹⁴ Daumas, 1972, 256–7.

¹⁵ Jackson, 2000, 99–108.

¹⁶ Telescopes were equipped with micrometers that used very thin silver or spider-web threads in the field of view, in order to offer a reference to the observer. See A. Chapman, The Techniques of Eighteenth Century Positional Astronomy, in A. Chapman, Dividing the Circle. The development of critical angular measurement in Astronomy 1500–1850 (John Wiley and Sons, 1990).

¹⁷ During the second half of the 18th century, it became common practice to check the accuracy of the divisions on the graduated limb of the instrument and to prepare a table of corrections. The procedure could easily take years and as the Italian astronomer Antonio Cagnoli complained, it was an ‘immense labor’; A. Cagnoli to A. Lorgna, July 1, 1782, BCV, ‘Carteggio Lorgna’, b. 13.

¹⁸ B. von Lindenau to B. Oriani, Seeberg, October 28, 1812, OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica. Fraunhofer's name never appeared in Oriani's correspondence with von Zach or Lindenau (von Zach's assistant in Seeberg) before 1811 or 1812.

¹⁹ When Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, 24 astronomers were involved in a survey organized by von Zach (especially, but not exclusively, in Germany) for the research of such objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

²⁰ On X. von Zach, see among other works: P. Brosche, Der Astronom der Herzogin: Leben und Werk von Franz Xaver von Zach 1754–1832, Frankfurt am Main, Deutsch, 2001; The European scientist Symposium on the era and work of Franz Xaver von Zach 1754–1832 (Acta Historica Astronomiae 24), edited by Lajos G. Bal'azs, Peter Brosche, Hilmar W. Duerbeck and Endre Zsoldos (Frankfurt am Main: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Harri Deutsch GmbH, 2005); M. Vargha, Franz Xaver von Zach (1754–1832). His Life and Times (Budapest: Kondoli Observatory, 2005).

²¹ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Seeberg, March 13, 1803; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica. Von Zach also negotiated the purchase of an instrument by Baumann for Brera Observatory in Milan. X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Brocken, August 23, 1803. OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

²² X. von Zach to C.F. Gauss, Seeberg, January 17, 1803, in: C.J. Cunningham, ed., The Collected Correspondence of Baron Franz Xaver von Zach (Star Lab Press, 2004), vol. 1, 180. On Baumann: Daumas 1972, 255. Schroeder was the mechanic at Seeberg observatory.

²³ The battle of Jena took place on October 14, 1806, only 3 miles from von Zach's residence in Eisenberg. In December 1806, the Duchy of Saxen-Gotha joined the French-controlled Confederation of the Rhine.

²⁴ Vargha 2005, 78–86.

²⁵ Von Zach himself had already visited the region in 1786–87 and 1804–05 with the Duchess (and, on the former occasion, the late Duke); Vargha 2005, 32–35, 66–70.

²⁶ Ken Alder, The Measure of all Things. The Seven-year Odissey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World (The Free Press, 2002), 237.

²⁷ Document signed by astronomers Oriani, De Cesaris and Reggio on April 24, 1798; OAB, Cart. 4, folder 31.

²⁸ On Italy in 1796–9, see: C. Zaghi, L'Italia giacobina (Turin: UTET, 1989); on the years 1800–14: C. Zaghi, L'Italia di Napoleone (Turin: UTET, 1989).

²⁹ A. Du Casse, ed., Mémoires et correspondance politique et militaire du prince Eugène (Paris, 1858), vol. I, 228 (July 29, 1805).

³⁰ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, July 1, 1813; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³¹ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Verona, September 23, 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³² F. Santini to A. Cesaris, Padua, March 3, 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³³ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Verona, September 23, 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁴ Reichenbach and Utzschneider to B. Oriani, Munich November 15, 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁵ Utzschneider, Reichenbach, Liebherr to B. Oriani, Munich, 15 December 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁶ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Seeberg, 1 March 1803; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁷ G. Reichenbach to B. Oriani, Munich, 21 December 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁸ Von Zach himself was not particularly satisfied with Munich optical production before Fraunhofer took it over: in 1809 he remarked that ‘[Reichenbach] has not made any advancements with his achromatic objectives in the last two years, and he is still at the same point where I left him when I left Munich. The good man is too much of an empiricist when it comes to optics, he needs your advice, and I beg you that you take care of it’. X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Pisa, 20 February 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

³⁹ G. Reichenbach to B. Oriani, Munich, 21 December 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴⁰ G. Reichenbach to B. Oriani, Munich, 8 September 1808; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴¹ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Genoa, 27 November 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴² X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Turin, 9 October 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴³ The telescope had been part of Antonio Cagnoli's private observatory in Verona. Luigi Inghirami, director of the Ximenian Observatory, found that it had been damaged during the shipping but the instrument itself was of ‘superb craftsmanship, and worth the high esteem in which it was held in this observatory’. L. Inghirami to A. De Cesaris, Florence, 18 March 1808; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴⁴ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Pisa, 20 February 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴⁵ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, 13 December 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴⁶ Report written by A. Cesaris, Milan, 5 December 1809; OAB, Archivio Amministrativo Vecchio.

⁴⁷ Report written by A. Cesaris, Milan, 5 December 1809; OAB, Archivio Amministrativo Vecchio.

⁴⁸ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Gotha, 29 August 1797; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁴⁹ ‘Count Caluso and Count Balbo are willing to do whatever they can for the new observatory […] A 3 foot circle will soon be ordered in Munich, but we would like to install the meridian telescope before making new expenses’. G. Plana to B. Oriani, Turin, November 9th, 1811; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁰ X. von Zach to Oriani, 26 January 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica. State counselor and Senator Pietro Moscati was a distinguished physician and surgeon.

⁵¹ Repeating circles were also known as ‘Borda circles’.

⁵² In practice, it was considered advisable to obtain several independent measurements of a single object, especially when great accuracy was required. Each star in Piazzi's catalogue (which included more than 6000) was measured four or five times. Lalande's catalogue, on the other hand, privileged completeness over accuracy and each of its 50 000 stars was observed only once.

⁵³ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, July 12, 1814; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁴ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Genoa, December 31, 1814; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁵ Vargha 2005, 118–9.

⁵⁶ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, September 25, 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁷ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Genoa, December 28, 1814; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁸ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, November 27, 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁵⁹ ‘J'ai l'ai bien emballé et sous votre adresse par le chariot de poste pour Milan, ou je désire qu'il arrive asséz a tems pour que, si l'occasion s'en prèsentoit, il puisse être vu par Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le grand’; G. Reichenbach to Oriani, Munich Decembre 21st, 1807; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶⁰ The Mediterranean was controlled by the Royal Navy and von Zach described his journey along the Italian and French coastline with characteristic self-irony: ‘I was not worried, since I had the command of the felucca on which we travelled and I sailed as a true astronomer, and as a true lily-livered: that is, with my eye always at the telescope, and ready to disembark at the slightest sight of an enemy vessel’. X. von Zach to B. Oriani, 26 May, 1808; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶¹ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Avignon, 10 November 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica. On Hautpoix (also spelled Haupois), see: Daumas 1972, pp. 281–282.

⁶² J. Von Utzschneider to B. Oriani, Munich, 21 August 1811; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶³ G. Reichenbach to B. Oriani, 14 December 1814; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶⁴ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, 16 July 1814; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶⁵ On Paris instrument makers Lenoir and Fortin, see: Daumas 1972, 276–9.

⁶⁶ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, 27 September 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁶⁷ ‘Rapport concernant les travaux de M. Jecker, fabricant d'instrumens d'astronomie, de géodésie et d'optique, rue de Bondy, n° 32, boulevard de Saint-Martin’, Le Moniteur Universel (Mercredi, 2 Septembre 1812), 967–8 (report signed by Arago, Burckhardt, Rossel, Leveque). On Jecker, see: Daumas 1972, 279–80. Jecker actually specialized in low-priced instruments.

⁶⁸ X. von Zach to Jan Sniadecki, Seeberg, November 24, 1800; in Cunningham, 2004, 57.

⁶⁹ R. Hahn, Pierre Simon Laplace. 1749–1827 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 123.

⁷⁰ R. Hahn, Pierre Simon Laplace. 1749–1827 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 149.

⁷¹ R. Hahn, Pierre Simon Laplace. 1749–1827 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 123.

⁷² See in particular: Alder 2002.

⁷³ See in particular : J.B. Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie du Moyen-Age (Paris: Courcier, 1819); Id, Histoire de l'Astronomie Moderne (Paris: Courcier, 1821); Id, Histoire de l'Astronomie au Dix-huitième Siècle (Paris: Bachelier, 1827).

⁷⁴ ‘Rapport’, 968.

⁷⁵ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, November 27, 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁷⁶ ‘Rapport’, 968.

⁷⁷ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, June 4, 1802; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁷⁸ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, March 1, 1803; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁷⁹ X. von Zach to C.F. Gauss, Seeberg, February 21, 1802, in: Cunningham, 2004, 128.

⁸⁰ X. von Zach to C.F. Gauss, Seeberg, March 20, 1802, in: Cunningham, 2004, 136.

⁸¹ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, July 1, 1813; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁸² X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, November 27, 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica. Von Zach referred to the French proverb: ‘Without the ifs and buts Paris would in trouble’. The controversy on the ring of Saturn was not new, and von Zach had described it to the Polish astronomer Jan Sniadecki in almost identical terms nine years before: ‘Another astronomical scandal! Mr. Schroeter believes undisputably to have observed while observing the disappearance of the ring of Saturn which was to occur last December … that the ring of Saturn does not show any rotational movement as Senator La Place wanted to prove with his theory … and Mr. Herschel pretends to have observed’. X. von Zach to J. Sniadecki, Seeberg, March 2, 1803, in: Cunningham, 2004, 87. See: P.S. Laplace, ‘Mémoire sur la théorie de l'anneau de Saturne’, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, 1787; W. Herschel, ‘On the Satellites of the Planet Saturn and the Rotation of Its Ring on an Axis’, Philosophical Transactions, 80 (January 1, 1790), 427–95. See also: A.F.O'D. Alexander, The Planet Saturn. A History of Observation, Theory and Discovery (New York: Dover, 1980) (1^st ed.: 1960), 122–3, 136–7.

⁸³ ‘Laplace's Mécanique spelled the complete victory of theory over brute data, generalized in empirical formulae… The paradox of Laplace's approach to natural philosophy was his strong theoretical bent existing side by side with his devotion to the empirically recorded phenomena of nature’; Hahn, 2005, 149.

⁸⁴ On this topic, see in particular: C.C. Gillispie, Science and Polity in France. The End of the Old Regime (Princeton University Press, 2004).

⁸⁵ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Avignon, December 13, 1809; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁸⁶ X. von Zach to B. Oriani, Marseille, November 27, 1812; OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.

⁸⁷ Concluding his review of the efforts by Jean Dominique Cassini, Bianchini and Schroeter to determine the rotation period of Venus, Delambre remarked that ‘this revolution is after all just a curiosity, which will never be of the least utility to practical astronomy’; J.B. Delambre, Histoire de l'Astronomie au XVIII siècle (Paris: Bachelier, 1827), 259.

⁸⁸ X. von Zach to C.F. Gauss, Seeberg, July 20, 1802, in: Cunningham, 2004, 210.

⁸⁹ X. von Zach to C.F. Gauss, Seeberg, February 21, 1802, in: Cunningham, 2004, 128.

⁹⁰ H.M. von Brühl to B. Oriani, London, May 28, 1787; June 25, 1787. OAB, Corrispondenza Scientifica.