Luca Valerio (155316 January 1618) was an Italian people mathematician. He developed ways to find and centers of gravity of solid Physical body using the methods of Archimedes. He corresponded with Galileo Galilei and was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei.
Biography
Luca Valerio was born in
Naples in 1553
[ The Galileo Project - Valerio (Valeri), Luca has 1552, but Baldini and Napolitani proved that he was born in 1553.] 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 language 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.
Galileo and Copernicus
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 5 March 1616 Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, chief theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a
decree that the idea of a Sun centred
Solar System, the Copernican system, a theory supported by Galileo, was
false and erroneous.
[ J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Luca Valerio, School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk] The prospect of being called before the
Inquisition 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.
[ J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, Luca Valerio, School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland, history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk] 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 Paul Guldin, Gregorius Saint Vincent, and Tacquet.[Per Strømholm, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).]
Works
Notes and references
Bibliography
External links
