Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/708

 702 LUCCA LUCERN tempt to establish a more popular government made by the gonfaloniere Burlamacchi toward the middle of the 16th century failed, and its instigator was put to death. The Martinian law passed soon afterward, and so called after its author, the gonfaloniere Martino Bernardini, established a close form of aristocratic gov- ernment resembling that of Venice, only a cer- tain number of families being made eligible to office. In 1797 Lucca was seized by the French, and in 1805 it was given by Napoleon as a principality to his sister Elisa Bacciochi. After his fall it was occupied by Austria, and the Spanish infanta Maria Louisa was invested with the regency of Lucca, which however was to revert to Tuscany as soon as the death of the Austrian Maria Louisa had reinstated the Spanish Maria Louisa and her son upon the throne of Parma. The latter princess was suc- ceeded, March 13, 1824, by her son Charles Louis, who had married in 1820 a daughter of the future king of Sardinia, Charles Albert. This prince spent most of his time abroad. Ward (died in 1858), an English groom, who left Yorkshire as a boy in the pay of Prince Liechtenstein, and spent some years as*a jockey in Vienna, ingratiated himself with the duke of Lucca, who promoted him from the stable to his household as valet, which service he per- formed up to 1846, when he was made master of the horse. Eventually he officiated as min- ister of the household and minister of finance, and was the ruling spirit of the duchy, until the retirement of the duke in 1847, afterward join- ing the service of the duke of Parma. Short- ly after the outbreak of the Italian movement in 1847, the duke ceded Lucca (with the excep- tion of some minor parts reverting to Modena and Parma) to Tuscany, of which it remained a province till March, 1860, when it was an- nexed to the dominions of Victor Emanuel. LUCCA, Pauline, a German vocalist, born in Vienna, April 25, 1842. Her parents were poor Jews, and when 14 years old she was placed in the chorus of the Karnthnerthor theatre. At 17 she accepted an engagement at the theatre of Olmutz, there taking her first leading role, that of Elvira in Ernani, Sept. 7, 1859. The following season she sang at Prague, and in 1861, through the influence of Meyerbeer, she obtained an engagement at Ber- lin, where she at once established herself as a favorite, and remained till 1872, but filled short engagements at the opera houses of London, St. Petersburg, and other cities. In 1865 she married Baron von Rhaden, a former Prussian army officer, from whom she was divorced after her arrival in the United States. On Sept. 30, 1872, she appeared at the New York academy of music. She possesses a pure and resonant soprano voice of great power and beauty, and combines with her qualities as a vocalist great dramatic ability. She is more distinguished for breadth of style than for facility of execu- tion. Her repertory is large, and she has sung in more than 40 German and Italian operas. LUCENA, a town of Andalusia, Spain, in the province and 34 m. S. S. E. of the city of Cor- dova; pop. about 20,000. It is chiefly inhab- ited by an agricultural population and provin- cial gentry. Manufactures of coarse linens, earthenware, &c., are carried on. In the envi- rons are esteemed medicinal baths. The Moors besieged this city in 1483, and were defeated. LUCERA, or Nocera, a town of S. Italy, in the province and 10 m. W. N. W. of the city of Foggia ; pop. about 15,000. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral which was former- ly a Saracenic mosque, a college, and a fine pri- vate museum. The present town was built in the 13th century on the site of Luceria, one of the most ancient towns of Apulia, which was destroyed by the Byzantines. The first inhab- itants were Saracens who had been expelled from Sicily, and to whom the emperor Fred- erick II. granted a refuge. LUCERN (Medicago sativa), a forage plant of the family leguminosce, and related to clover Lucern (Medicago sativa). (trifolium) not only in its botanical characters but in its agricultural uses. The derivation of the word is obscure, but it is supposed by some to be from the Swiss canton of the same name ; it is known in Spain as alfalfa, which name it bears also in Spanish American coun- tries, and is still retained in California and New Mexico. The root of lucern is perennial, from which arise erect, smooth, branching stems, 2 ft. or more high ; the leaves are pin- nately trifoliolate, the leaflets obovate-oblong, toothed; the flowers, instead of being in a dense head as in clover, are in erect racemes ; the corolla is violet-purple, and the many-seed- ed pod is spirally coiled. The generic name is from the Greek M?(J#, as it came to the Greeks from Media ; it was probably cultivated several centuries before Christ, and came into Euro- pean agriculture through the south of France and Spain. Lucern has never been much grown in England or in the older United States, but