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Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736–1813)
Lagrange, Joseph Louis (lä-grä
zh’). A great French mathematician; born at Turin, Jan. 25, 1736; died at Paris, April 10, 1813. While still a youth he solved for Euler the “isoperimetrical problem,” whom he succeeded as director of the Berlin Academy (1766–87). In the meantime he contributed to the Proceedings of the Academy a long series of memoirs, and wrote his greatest work, ‘Analytical Mechanics.’ After the death of Frederick the Great he removed to Paris; there he was lodged in the Louvre, and a pension was settled on him equal to that granted by Frederick. He remained in France during the Revolution, safeguarded by the respect felt for his learning and his virtues even by the judges of the revolutionary tribunals.