An Observer of Observatories , livre ebook

An Observer of Observatories

An Observer of Observatories
The Journal of Thomas Bugge’ s
Tour of Germany, Holland and England in 1777

Edited by Kurt Møller Pedersen and Peter de Clercq

Aarhus Universitetsforlag

An Observer of Observatories
The Journal of Thomas Bugge’s Tour of Germany, Holland
and England in 1777

© The authors and Aarhus University Press, 2010

Graphic production: P.J. Schmidt A/S
Cover: Jørgen Sparre
Illustration: “View of the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich”, water colour, c. 1770.
© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

eISBN 978 87 7934 346 7

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This book is published with the financial support of
The Aarhus University Research Foundation
The Carlsberg Foundation

Foliation in the journal manuscript is indicated as [3 recto].
A scan of the original manuscript is accessible at
www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/manus/659/dan.

Bugge often added words in the margin. These have been
inserted in the text between **.

Contents

Preface

Thomas Bugge (1740–1815)
Travel journals
Bugge’s journal of 1777

Summary of the journal
A note on money

The Journal

Appendix 1. Travel expenses
Appendix 2. Books bought in London
Appendix 3. Instruments bought in London
Appendix 4. Data of astronomical observations

Bibliography
Photo credits
Name index
Subject index

vii

ix
xiii
xvii

xxi
xxiii

1

175
181
191
197

203
213
215
219

Preface

When Thomas Bugge (1740-1815) was appointed
professor of mathematics and astronomy at the
University of Copenhagen in January 1777, he
became responsible for the observatory, which
in the seventeenth century had been built on top
of the Round Tower. Later that year he travelled
to Holland and England to acquaint himself with
the state of astronomy and instrument-making
in these countries. After his return four months
later, he began to renovate the observatory.
During his tour he kept a journal in which
he noted what he saw, whom he met and which
books and instruments he bought. It comprises
five quarto notebooks with a total of 94 folios,
filled on both sides with text and drawings. In
1969, this journal was discovered in the Royal
Library in Copenhagen by the first editor of the
present volume, associate professor Kurt Møller
Pedersen. He brought it to the notice of Cdr
Derek Howse (1919–1998), then head of the
department of Navigation and Astronomy at the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Howse
flew to Denmark especially to study the
manuscript and judged it of such historical interest that
he advised publication. In 1975, on the 300th
anniversary of the foundation of the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, Bugge’s journal was exhibited
there for several weeks and received much
attention from the hundreds of historians of science
gathered for this important event.
This positive response was encouraging for
Pedersen. Together with his secretary, Mette
Dybdahl, he made a transcription of the Danish
manuscript and an English translation. Soon
cop

ies began to circulate among scholars, who
quoted and used it in their publications. In 1997, a
modestly produced edition was issued by the
History of Science Department of the University of
Aarhus, entitled: Thomas Bugge, Journal of a
Voyage through Holland and England, 1777 Thi. s saw
emphatically no more than a preliminary edition,
and in his preface Pedersen expressed the hope
that ’someone more qualified than I will undertake
to improve the English translation and provide
annotations of the instruments described and drawn by
Bugge, so that a proper scholarly edition of this
valuable source for 18th century astronomy may
eventually be available.’
In 2001 the second editor, Dr Peter de Clercq,
came forward and offered his assistance. He
began to make textual improvements and
annotation, a prolonged process that at times came to
a standstill as there was no clear prospect of
publication. This editorial work was greatly
facilitated when, in 2006, the Royal Library in
Copenhagen made a scan of the manuscript
available on its website: www.kb.dk/permalink/2006/
manus/659/dan.
In the spring of 2008, Aarhus University Press
agreed to publish the book, on condition that
financial support would be found. Proposals were
sent to the Aarhus University Foundation and the
Carlsberg Foundation. It was a great moment for
the editors when, in the autumn of 2008, both
funds agreed to supply the necessary funding, and
they deserve gratitude for this contribution to a
better understanding of the history of science in
Europe.

VIII

PREFACE

The Carlsberg Foundation supplied additional
funding to allow the book to appear in two
separate, but essentially identical editions: one in
Danish, the other in English. This meant significantly
more work for the editors, but it was undertaken
with pleasure as, forty years after its discovery,
Bugge’s journal will now be available both in
transcription and in an English translation, each fully
annotated.
Many friends and colleagues, librarians,
archivists, museum curators and others have
contributed in a variety of ways. For supplying
information and photographs, for commenting on
parts of the edition, and for supporting the
application for the funding of this publication, we
wish to thank Jørgen From Andersen, Martin
Beech, Jim Bennett, Jonathan Betts, Dan Charly
Christensen, Gloria Clifton, Tiemen Cocquyt,

Diana Crawforth-Hitchins, J.Th. van Doesburg,
Rob van Gent, Willem Hackmann, A.J.E.
Harmsen, Helge Kragh, Leif Kahl Kristensen, Peter
Louwman, Anita McConnell, Alison
MorrisonLow, Joshua Nall, Keld Nielsen, Erling Poulsen,
David Riches, Sara Schechner, Bruno Svindborg,
David Thompson, Anthony Turner, Jan van
Wandelen, Jane Wess, Diederick Wildeman and Huib
Zuidervaart, y mavehasehoe wiaf delsat le lsaw
to mention.
Finally, we thank the librarian at the
Department of Science Studies, Susanne Nørskov and
Aarhus University Press, and in particular Claes
Hvidbak and Sanne Lind Hansen, for their expert
handling of this project.

Aarhus and London, Autumn 2009
Kurt Møller Pedersen and Peter de Clercq

Thomas Bugge 1740–1815

Some forty years ago, a biography of Bugge was
published, written by the Director of the
Geodetic Institute to commemorate the 150th
anniver1
sary of his death. More recently, a large amount
of information on Bugge, especially on his
astronomical activities, became available in a
threevolume overview of four centuries of astronomy
2
in Denmark. As both publications are in
Danish, those unable to read that language must look
elsewhere for information on Bugge. They may
turn to a commemorative volume on the Royal
Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, which
he had served as its secretary for many years.
There is the introduction to a modern edition
of his journal on the Parisian scientific scene of
4
1798. And there are a few pages on Bugge in a
recent book on the history of science in Denmark,
which characterizes him as ’one of the most
famous scientists of his time’, and states that
’Thomas Bugge did not produce any scientific work of
similar originality, but his overall contribution to
the natural sciences in Denmark was far greater
5
than Wessel’s was’. It makes one wonder why he

1 Ander1s9en6 8
2 Thykier 1990. The sections most relevant to Bugge are
vol. 1, pp. 94–104 (on his directorate of the observatory),
vol. 2, pp. 184–187 (instrumentation of the observatory
during his directorate) and 214–215 (line-drawings of the
observatory and the main instruments in Bugge’s time,
based on Bugge 1784) and vol. 3, pp. 445–458 (including
a list of Bugge’s publications, which incidentally is not
complete). There is an English summary on pp. 583–589.
3 Peders1e9n9 2
4 Crosla1n9d6 9
5 Kragh and others, pp. 151–154. The comparison is to the
surveyor and mathematician Caspar Wessel (1745–1818).

3

was not included in the authoritative,
multi-vol 6
ume Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Thomas Bugge was born in Copenhagen on 12
October 1740 as the son of Peder Bugge and his
wife Olive, born Saur. His father was a scribe
taking care of the financial accounts of the royal wine
cellar, and was later appointed chamberlain and
superintendent of the royal household. They
belonged to a line of a noble family but were una