Cavalieri was a mathematician who lived from 1598 until 1647. He was a pupil of Galileo and taught at the university in Bologna. He delved into deep aspects of volume and area calculations, and his results became important building blocks of the foundations of calculus. Although his methods were sorely criticized by his contemporaries, similar ideas had been used by Archimedes in antiquity. Eventually his work was looked on with high regard by the Fathers of Calculus, Newton and Leibniz.