Shafts and Stars, Crafts and Sciences: The Making of a Jesuit Astronomer in the Habsburg Provinces

Almost in the geometric center of present-day Slovakia, nestled among the green hills south of the majestic peaks of the Tatra Mountains, scattered along the valley of the winding Hron (Granus, Garam) River, seven towns arose under the sovereignty of the kings of Hungary from the eleventh century onward. In the fifteenth century, they became collectively known as “the mining towns of Lower Hungary,” an appellation based on their geographic position as compared to the Spiš (Szepes, Scepusium, Zips) mining region from the perspective of Vienna and Bratislava (Pozsony, Posonium, Pressburg), the seats of the imperial and royal governmental offices