the death of the younger Gordian to the time of Justin III. Laetus also wrote commentaries on classical authors, and promoted the publication of the editio princeps of Virgil at Rome in 1469.
See The Life of Leto by Sabellicus (Strassburg, 1510); G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Alterthums, ii.; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, vii. (1894), p. 576, for an account of the academy; Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (1908), ii. 92.
LAEVIUS (? c. 80 B.C.), a Latin poet of whom practically nothing is known. The earliest reference to him is perhaps in Suetonius (De grammaticis, 3), though it is not certain that the Laevius Milissus there referred to is the same person. Definite references do not occur before the 2nd century (Fronto, Ep. ad M. Caes. i. 3; Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. ii. 24, xii. 10, xix. 9; Apuleius, De magia, 30; Porphyrion, Ad Horat. carm. iii. 1, 2). Some sixty miscellaneous lines are preserved (see Bährens, Fragm. poët. rom. pp. 287-293), from which it is difficult to see how ancient critics could have regarded him as the master of Ovid or Catullus. Gellius and Ausonius state that he composed an Erotopaegnia, and in other sources he is credited with Adonis, Alcestis, Centauri, Helena, Ino, Protesilaudamia, Sirenocirca, Phoenix, which may, however, be only the parts of the Erotopaegnia. They were not serious poems, but light and often licentious skits on the heroic myths.
See O. Ribbeck, Geschichte der römischen Dichtung, i.; H. de la Ville de Mirmont, Étude biographique et littéraire sur le poète Laevius (Paris, 1900), with critical ed. of the fragments, and remarks on vocabulary and syntax; A. Weichert, Poëtarum latinorum reliquiae (Leipzig, 1830); M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur (2nd ed.), pt. i. p. 163; W. Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. tr.), § 150, 4; a convenient summary in F. Plessis, La Poésie latine (1909), pp. 139-142.
LAEVULINIC ACID (β-acetopropionic acid), C5H8O3 or CH3CO·CH2·CH2·CO2H, a ketonic acid prepared from laevulose, inulin, starch, &c., by boiling them with dilute hydrochloric or sulphuric acids. It may be synthesized by condensing sodium acetoacetate with monochloracetic ester, the acetosuccinic ester produced being then hydrolysed with dilute hydrochloric acid (M. Conrad, Ann., 1877, 188, p. 222).
CH3·CO·CH·Na CH3·CO·CH·CH2·CO2R
|→|→ CH3·COCH2·CH2·CO2OH
CO2RCO2R
It may also be prepared by heating the anhydride of γ-methyloxy-glutaric acid with concentrated sulphuric acid, and by oxidation of methyl heptenone and of geraniol. It crystallizes in plates, which melt at 32.5-33° C. and boil at 148-149° (15 mm.) (A. Michael, Jour. prak. Chem., 1891 [2], 44, p. 114). It is readily soluble in alcohol, ether and water. The acid, when distilled slowly, is decomposed and yields α- and β-angelica lactones. When heated with hydriodic acid and phosphorus, it yields n-valeric acid; and with iodine and caustic soda solution it gives iodoform, even in the cold. With hydroxylamine it yields an oxime, which by the action of concentrated sulphuric acid rearranges itself to N-methylsuccinimide [CH2·CO]2N·CH3.
LA FARGE, JOHN (1835–1910), American artist, was born
in New York, on the 31st of March 1835, of French parentage.
He received instruction in drawing from his grandfather,
Binsse de St Victor, a painter of miniatures; studied law and
architecture; entered the atelier of Thomas Couture in Paris,
where he remained a short time, giving especial attention to the
study and copying of old masters at the Louvre; and began
by making illustrations to the poets (1859). An intimacy with
the artist William M. Hunt had a strong influence on him,
the two working together at Newport, Rhode Island. La Farge
painted landscape, still life and figure alike in the early sixties.
But from 1866 on he was for some time incapacitated for work,
and when he regained strength he did some decorative work
for Trinity church, Boston, in 1876, and turned his attention
to stained glass, becoming president of the Society of Mural
Painters. Some of his important commissions include windows
for St Thomas’s church (1877), St Peter’s church, the Paulist
church, the Brick church (1882), the churches of the Incarnation
(1885) and the Ascension (1887), New York; Trinity church,
Buffalo, and the “Battle Window” in Memorial Hall at
Harvard; ceilings and windows for the house of Cornelius
Vanderbilt, windows for the houses of W. H. Vanderbilt
and D. O. Mills, and panels for the house of Whitelaw Reid,
New York; panels for the Congressional Library, Washington;
Bowdoin College, the Capitol at St Paul, Minn., besides designs
for many stained glass windows. He was also a prolific painter
in oil and water colour, the latter seen notably in some water-colour
sketches, the result of a voyage in the South Seas, shown
in 1895. His influence on American art was powerfully exhibited
in such men as Augustus St Gaudens, Wilton Lockwood, Francis
Lathrop and John Humphreys Johnston. He became president
of the Society of American Artists, a member of the National
Academy of Design in 1869; an officer of the Legion of Honour
of France; and received many medals and decorations. He
published Considerations on Painting (New York, 1895),
Hokŭsai: A Talk about Hokŭsai (New York, 1897), and An
Artist’s Letters from Japan (New York, 1897).
See Cecilia Waern, John La Farge, Artist and Writer (London, 1896, No. 26 of The Portfolio).
LA FARINA, GIUSEPPE (1815–1863), Italian author and politician, was born at Messina. On account of the part he took in the insurrection of 1837 he had to leave Sicily, but returning in 1839 he conducted various newspapers of liberal tendencies, until his efforts were completely interdicted, when he removed to Florence. In 1840 he had published Messina ed i suoi monumenti, and after his removal to Florence he brought out La Germania coi suoi monumenti (1842), L’ Italia coi suoi monumenti (1842), La Svizzera storica ed artistica (1842–1843), La China, 4 vols. (1843–1847), and Storia d’ Italia, 7 vols. (1846–1854). In 1847 he established at Florence a democratic journal, L’ Alba, in the interests of Italian freedom and unity, but on the outbreak of the revolution in Sicily in 1848 he returned thither and was elected deputy and member of the committee of war. In August of that year he was appointed minister of public instruction and later of war and marine. After vigorously conducting a campaign against the Bourbon troops, he was forced into exile, and repaired to France in 1849. In 1850 he published his Storia documentata della Rivoluzione Siciliana del 1848–1849, and in 1851–1852 his Storia d’ Italia dal 1815 al 1848, in 6 vols. He returned to Italy in 1854 and settled at Turin, and in 1856 he founded the Piccolo Corriere d’ Italia, an organ which had great influence in propagating the political sentiments of the Società Nazionale Italiana, of which he ultimately was chosen president. With Daniele Manin (q.v.), one of the founders of that society, he advocated the unity of Italy under Victor Emmanuel even before Cavour, with whom at one time he had daily interviews, and organized the emigration of volunteers from all parts of Italy into the Piedmontese army. He also negotiated an interview between Cavour and Garibaldi, with the result that the latter was appointed commander of the Cacciatori delle Alpi in the war of 1859. Later he supported Garibaldi’s expedition to Sicily, where he himself went soon after the occupation of Palermo, but he failed to bring about the immediate annexation of the island to Piedmont as Cavour wished. In 1860 he was chosen a member of the first Italian parliament and was subsequently made councillor of state. He died on the 5th of September 1863.
See A. Franchi, Epistolario di Giuseppe La Farina (2 vols., 1869) and L. Carpi, Il Risorgimento Italiano, vol. i. (Milan, 1884).
LA FAYETTE, GILBERT MOTIER DE (1380–1462), marshal of France, was brought up at the court of Louis II., 3rd duke of Bourbon. He served under Marshal Boucicaut in Italy, and on his return to France after the evacuation of Genoa in 1409 became seneschal of the Bourbonnais. In the English wars he was with John I., 4th duke of Bourbon, at the capture of Soubise in 1413, and of Compiègne in 1415. The duke then made him lieutenant-general in Languedoc and Guienne. He failed to defend Caen and Falaise in the interest of the dauphin (afterwards Charles VII.) against Henry V. in 1417 and 1418, but in the latter year he held Lyons for some time against Jean sans Peur, duke of Burgundy. A series of successes over the English
