1886 deaths

Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist.

Karl Theodor von Piloty (1 October 1826 – 21 July 1886) was a German painter, noted for his historical subjects, and recognised as the foremost representative of the realistic school in Germany.

Edmond Nicolas Laguerre (9 April 1834, Bar-le-Duc – 14 August 1886, Bar-le-Duc) was a French mathematician and a member of the Académie des sciences (1885). His main works were in the areas of geometry and complex analysis. He also investigated orthogonal polynomials (see Laguerre polynomials). Laguerre's method is a root-finding algorithm tailored to polynomials. He laid the foundations of a geometry of oriented spheres (Laguerre geometry and Laguerre plane), including the Laguerre transformation or transformation by reciprocal directions.

Théodore Aubanel (Occitan:Teodòr Aubanèu; 26 March 1829 – 2 November 1886) was a Provençal poet. He was born in Avignon in a family of printers.
Aubanel started writing poetry in French but quickly switched to Provençal, due to the influence of Joseph Roumanille. He is known primarily for La Miougrano entreduberto (1860, The Split Pomegranate) and Li Fiho d'Avignoun (1885, The Young Ladies of Avignon), two collections of lyric poems.
He died in Avignon.