Luca Valerio (155316 January 1618) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

. He developed ways to find

volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...

s and centers of gravity of solid bodies using the methods of

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

. He corresponded with

Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

and was a member of the

Accademia dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

Biography

Luca Valerio was born in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

in 1553 He entered in the Jesuit order in 1570. He studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at the Roman College as a student of Christopher Clavius, and left the Jesuits in 1580. He later taught

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

at the Collegio Pontifico Greco and mathematics and ethics at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. In 1611 Valerio obtained a position in the

Vatican library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

in addition to his post at Sapienza giving him close connection with the top people in the

Roman Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Galileo and Copernicus

Valerio met Galileo on a visit to

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

in 1584. He corresponded with Galileo from 1609 until 1616 and in 1612 he became a member of the

, a group which also included Galileo as a member. On 5 March 1616 Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, chief theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a

decree A decree is a law, legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state, judge, monarch, royal figure, or other relevant Authority, authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislativ ...

that the idea of a Sun centred

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, the Copernican system, a theory supported by Galileo, was ''false and erroneous''. The prospect of being called before the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

caused Valerio to end all correspondence with Galileo and resign from the ''Accademia dei Lincei''. The members of the Academy looked on Valerio's actions as aligning himself with Galileo's opponents and accusing the Academy itself of committing a crime. His resignation was rejected by the Accademia, but they took away his right to participate in Accademia meetings. Federico Cesi, the Accademia dei Lincei's founder, still hoped however that Valerio could re-enter the ranks of the academics, but the mathematician died in January 1618. Among the mathematicians who studied him and spoke highly of him were Cavalieri, Torricelli and J.-C. de la Faille. He also had a direct influence on Guldin, Gregorius Saint Vincent, and Tacquet.Per Strømholm, Biography in ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' (New York 1970-1990).

Works

''Subtilium indagationum liber primus seu quadratura circuli et aliorum curvilineorum''
1582 * ''De centro gravitatis solidorum libri tres'', Rome 1604—Includes applying general methods to find volumes and centres of gravity of solid bodies. ** Online:
the 1661 edition

''Quadratura parabolae per simplex falsum''
Rome 1606

Notes and references

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valerio, Luca 16th-century Italian mathematicians 17th-century Italian mathematicians Former Jesuits 1553 births 1618 deaths 16th-century Italian Jesuits Jesuit scientists Members of the Lincean Academy Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome