◀ ▲ ▶History / 18th-century / Person: Hallerstein, Augustin

Person: Hallerstein, Augustin

Augustin Hallerstein was born in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) and entered the Jesuit Order. After studying and teaching in Europe he went to China as a Jesuit missionary. He became head of the Mathematics and Astronomy Board of the Imperial Court but maintained extensive contacts with the Royal Society in London, the Imperial Observatory in Vienna and the Academy of St Petersburg.

Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):

• Augustin then studied at a high school in Ljubljana before spending three years studying philosophy at the Jesuit Collegium of Ljubljana.
• In his first year of higher studies, 1718-19, he should have studied mathematics with Jozef Kraus but due to Kraus's illness there were no mathematics classes offered and Hallerstein had to study it on his own.
• In Vienna, Hallerstein met Janez Krstnik Thullner who was now the professor of mathematics there.
• It was Thullner who taught Hallerstein mathematics and the two continued to collaborate even after Hallerstein had gone to China.
• In 1723-24 Hallerstein was back in Ljubljana as a novice when he met Anton Stancker who had been appointed as professor of physics.
• Hallerstein studied theology at Graz for two years 1728-30, and then was appointed as head of the Jesuit College in Timisoara.
• In a letter to the Jesuit General in Rome, the astronomer of the Portuguese court and rector of Colegio de Santo Antao, Giovanni Battista Carbone, S.J., Fellow of the Royal Society (1694-1750), offered to Jai Singh to employ Hallerstein, Laimbeckhoven, or both.
• The Jesuit Carbone taught Hallerstein and Laimbeckhoven the techniques of the observation of stars, and lent them mathematical books and instruments.
• Hallerstein decided that this offer from India was what he wanted and, instead of going to China, he would accept Jai Singh's offer.
• On 24 April 1736 both Hallerstein and Laimbeckhoven boarded the Saint Peter of Alkantar which, on the following day, set sail for Goa.
• It was not until 11 May 1738 that Hallerstein left Goa sailing on to Malacca, then continuing to Macao which was reached on 4 September 1738.
• After Hallerstein's arrival in Macao on 4 September 1938, the news that he was an excellent mathematician came quickly to Beijing, so the next year he was asked to come to Beijing, where the emperor Qianlong became fond of him and ordered him to become the aid of Ignatius Kögler (1680-1746).
• Following Pereira's death in 1743, Hallerstein had become vice-president of the Board of Mathematics and the natural successor to Kögler.
• In order to appreciate the conditions under which Hallerstein worked in China, we need to look a little at the background of the Jesuit mission to China.
• Not only was there opposition to Hallerstein's religious mission but there was also opposition against Jesuits holding leading positions which the Chinese felt that they should have.
• Of course, Hallerstein was working on astronomy at a time when the Church of Rome insisted on an Earth centred solar system while many were following Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler in their claim that the Earth orbited the sun.
• Hallerstein never publicly expressed an opinion on this issue which seems to indicate that he was a believer in the heliocentric system but, for religious reasons, could not openly say so.
• The position of the Jesuits within the Roman Catholic Church had been getting more difficult throughout Hallerstein's time in China.
• On 13 November 1773 Hallerstein sent a request to the Emperor asking that he be allowed to retire.
• On 29 July 1774 Hallerstein suffered a stroke.
• Hallerstein gained fame in his own time with the letters he sent to Europe which were widely read and often published by various Academies and Societies.
• On 21 January 2003 Slovenia issued a 107 Slovenian tolar stamp for Hallerstein in their 'Famous people of Slovenia' series.
• The asteroid 15071 Hallerstein, discovered on 24 January 1999, is named for him.

Born 27 August 1703, Ljubljana, Carniola (now Slovenia). Died 29 October 1774, Beijing, China.

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References

Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:

1. O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive