Œuvres de Lagrange, publiées sous les soins de M. J. A. Serret (Paris, 1867–1877). The first, second and third sections of this publication comprise respectively the papers communicated by him to the Academies of Sciences of Turin, Berlin and Paris; the fourth includes his miscellaneous contributions to other scientific collections, together with his additions to Euler’s Algebra, and his Leçons élémentaires at the École Normale in 1795. Delambre’s notice of his life, extracted from the Mém. de l’Institut, 1812, is prefixed to the first volume. Besides the separate works already named are Résolution des équations numériques (1798, 2nd ed., 1808, 3rd ed., 1826), and Leçons sur le calcul des fonctions (1805, 2nd ed., 1806), designed as a commentary and supplement to the first part of the Théorie des fonctions. The first volume of the enlarged edition of the Mécanique appeared in 1811, the second, of which the revision was completed by MM Prony and Binet, in 1815. A third edition, in 2 vols., 4to, was issued in 1853–1855, and a second of the Théorie des fonctions in 1813.
See also J. J. Virey and Potel, Précis historique (1813); Th. Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy (1813–1820), vols. ii. and iv.; H. Suter, Geschichte der math. Wiss. (1873); E. Dühring, Kritische Gesch. der allgemeinen Principien der Mechanik (1877, 2nd ed.); A. Gautier, Essai historique sur le problème des trois corps (1817); R. Grant, History of Physical Astronomy, &c.; Pietro Cossali, Éloge (Padua, 1813); L. Martini, Cenni biográfici (1840); Moniteur du 26 Février (1814); W. Whewell, Hist. of the Inductive Sciences, ii. passim; J. Clerk Maxwell, Electricity and Magnetism, ii. 184; A. Berry, Short Hist. of Astr., p. 313; J. S. Bailly, Hist. de l’astr. moderne, iii. 156, 185, 232; J. C. Poggendorff, Biog. Lit. Handwörterbuch. (A. M. C.)
LAGRANGE-CHANCEL [Chancel], FRANÇOIS JOSEPH (1677–1758), French dramatist and satirist, was born at Périgueux on the 1st of January 1677. He was an extremely precocious boy, and at Bordeaux, where he was educated, he produced a play when he was nine years old. Five years later his mother took him to Paris, where he found a patron in the princesse de Conti, to whom he dedicated his tragedy of Jugurtha or, as it was called later, Adherbal (1694). Racine had given him advice and was present at the first performance, although he had long lived in complete retirement. Other plays followed: Oreste et Pylade (1697), Méléagre (1699), Amasis (1701), and Ino et Mélicerte (1715). Lagrange hardly realized the high hopes raised by his precocity, although his only serious rival on the tragic stage was Campistron, but he obtained high favour at court, becoming maître d’hôtel to the duchess of Orleans. This prosperity ended with the publication in 1720 of his Philippiques, odes accusing the regent, Philip, duke of Orleans, of the most odious crimes. He might have escaped the consequences of this libel but for the bitter enmity of a former patron, the duc de La Force. Lagrange found sanctuary at Avignon, but was enticed beyond the boundary of the papal jurisdiction, when he was arrested and sent as a prisoner to the isles of Sainte Marguerite. He contrived, however, to escape to Sardinia and thence to Spain and Holland, where he produced his fourth and fifth Philippiques. On the death of the Regent he was able to return to France. He was part author of a Histoire de Périgord left unfinished, and made a further contribution to history, or perhaps, more exactly, to romance, in a letter to Élie Fréron on the identity of the Man with the Iron Mask. Lagrange’s family life was embittered by a long lawsuit against his son. He died at Périgueux at the end of December 1758.
He had collected his own works (5 vols., 1758) some months before his death. His most famous work, the Philippiques, was edited by M. de Lescure in 1858, and a sixth philippic by M. Diancourt in 1886.
LA GRANJA, or San Ildefonso, a summer palace of the kings of Spain; on the south-eastern border of the province of Segovia, and on the western slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama, 7 m. by road S.E. of the city of Segovia. The royal estate is 3905 ft. above sea-level. The scenery of this region, especially in
the gorge of the river Lozoya, with its granite rocks, its dense forest of pines, firs and birches, and its red-tiled farms, more nearly resembles the highlands of northern Europe than any other part of Spain. La Granja has an almost alpine climate, with a clear, cool atmosphere and abundant sunshine. Above the palace rise the wooded summits of the Guadarrama, culminating
in the peak of Peñalara (7891 ft.); in front of it the wide plains of Segovia extend northwards. The village of San Ildefonso, the oldest part of the estate, was founded in 1450 by Henry IV., who built a hunting lodge and chapel here. In 1477 the chapel was presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the monks of the Parral, a neighbouring Hieronymite monastery. The original granja (i.e. grange or farm), established by the monks, was purchased in 1719 by Philip V., after the destruction of his summer palace at Valsain, the ancient Vallis Sapinorum, 2 m. S. Philip determined to convert the estate into a second Versailles. The palace was built between 1721 and 1723. Its façade is fronted by a colonnade in which the pillars reach to the roof. The state apartments contain some valuable 18th-century furniture, but the famous collection of sculptures was removed to Madrid in 1836, and is preserved there in the Museo del Prado. At La Granja it is represented by facsimiles in plaster. The collegiate church adjoining the palace dates from 1724, and contains the tombs of Philip V. and his consort Isabella Farnese. An artificial lake called El Mar, 4095 ft. above sea-level,
irrigates the gardens, which are imitated from those of Versailles, and supplies water for the fountains. These, despite the antiquated and sometimes tasteless style of their ornamentation, are probably the finest in the world; it is noteworthy that, owing to the high level of the lake, no pumps or other mechanism are needed to supply pressure. There are twenty-six fountains besides lakes and waterfalls. Among the most remarkable are the group of “Perseus, Andromeda and the Sea-Monster,”
which sends up a jet of water 110 ft. high, the “Fame,” which reaches 125 ft., and the very elaborate “Baths of Diana.” It is of the last that Philip V. is said to have remarked, “It has cost me three millions and amused me three minutes.” Most of the fountains were made by order of Queen Isabella in 1727, during the king’s absence. The glass factory of San Ildefonso was founded by Charles III.
It was in La Granja that Philip V. resigned the crown to his son in January 1724, to resume it after his son’s death seven months later; that the treaties of 1777, 1778, 1796 and 1800 were signed (see Spain: History); that Ferdinand VII. summoned Don Carlos to the throne in 1832, but was induced to alter the succession in favour of his own infant daughter Isabella, thus involving Spain in civil war; and that in 1836 a military revolt compelled the Queen-regent Christina to restore the constitution of 1812.
LAGRENÉE, LOUIS JEAN FRANÇOIS (1724–1805), French painter, was a pupil of Carle Vanloo. Born at Paris on the 30th of December 1724, in 1755 he became a member of the Royal Academy, presenting as his diploma picture the “Rape of Deianira” (Louvre). He visited St Petersburg at the call of the empress Elizabeth, and on his return was named in 1781 director of the French Academy at Rome; he there painted the “Indian Widow,” one of his best-known works. In 1804 Napoleon conferred on him the cross of the legion of honour, and on the 19th of June 1805 he died in the Louvre, of which he was honorary keeper.
LA GUAIRA, or La Guayra (sometimes Laguaira, &c.), a town and port of Venezuela, in the Federal district, 23 m. by rail and 612 m. in a direct line N. of Caracas. Pop. (1904, estimate) 14,000. It is situated between a precipitous mountain side and a broad, semicircular indentation of the coast line which forms the roadstead of the port. The anchorage was long considered one of the most dangerous on the Caribbean coast, and landing was attended with much danger. The harbour has been improved by the construction of a concrete breakwater running out from the eastern shore line 2044 ft., built up from an extreme depth of 46 ft. or from an average depth of 2912 ft., and rising 1912 ft. above sea-level. This encloses an area of 7612 acres, having an average depth of nearly 28 ft. The harbour is further improved by 1870 ft. of concrete quays and 1397 ft. of retaining sea-wall, with several piers (three covered) projecting into deep
water. These works were executed by a British company,
known as the La Guaira Harbour Corporation, Ltd., and were completed in 1891 at a cost of about one million sterling. The concession is for 99 years and the additional charges which the company is authorized to impose are necessarily heavy. These improvements and the restrictions placed upon the direct trade between West Indian ports and the Orinoco have greatly increased
the foreign trade of La Guaira, which in 1903 was 52% of that of the four puertos habilitados of the republic. The shipping
