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Luca Valerio (1553–1618) was an Italian mathematician. He developed ways to find volumes and centers of gravity of solid bodies using the methods of Archimedes. He corresponded with Galileo Galilei and was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.
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Luca Valerio was born in Naples in 1553[1] He entered in the Jesuit order in 1570. He studied philosophy and theology at the Roman College as a student of Christopher Clavius, and left the Jesuits in 1580. He later taught rhetoric and Greek at the Collegio Pontifico Greco and mathematics and ethics at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1611 Valerio obtained a position in the Vatican library in addition to his post at Sapienza giving him close connection with the top people in the Roman Catholic church.
Valerio met Galileo on a visit to Pisa in 1584. He corresponded with Galileo from 1609 until 1616 and in 1612 he became a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, a group which also included Galileo as a member. On March 5, 1616 Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, chief theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a decree that Copernicanism was false and erroneous. The prospect of being called before the Inquisition caused Valerio to end all correspondence with Galileo and resign from the Accademia dei Lincei. His resignation was rejected by the Accademia, but they took his right to participate in Accademia meetings. Federico Cesi, the Accademia dei Lincei's founder, still hoped however that Valerio could re-enter in the ranks of the academics, but the mathematician died in January 1618.