Lodovico delle Colombe (20 January 1565 – after 1623) was an Italian Aristotelian scholar, famous for his debates with Galileo Galilei in a series of controversies in physics and astronomy.

Delle Colombe was born in Florence in the second half of the 16th century. A date of January 20, 1565 has been suggested, but the source for this is unknown. Likewise nothing is known of his family, except that he was of noble origin, or of his education. He became a member of the Accademia Fiorentina when Francesco Nori was its consul and was also a member of the Consiglio dei Dugento, the advisory body to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He was said to be tall and very thin with a long white beard, a little bald head and sunken eyes. He wore a fleece jacket and a large collar. Because of his appearance and his lonely and melancholy character he was nicknamed 'the Superintendent of Limbo' by the satirical poet Francesco Ruspoli. One of his brothers, Raffaello delle Colombe (1557–1627), was the Dominican Prior of Santa Maria Novella, who denounced Galileo from his pulpit.

In October 1604, a new star was seen. By night, it was the brightest star in the sky, and it was visible during the day for more than three weeks, before eventually dimming. In 1606, Delle Colombe published his discourse on the phenomenon, dedicated to Alessandro Marzi Medici, the Archbishop of Florence. In his work delle Colombe argued that the star was not new, but permanent, though only occasionally visible. This argument echoed that of Johannes van Heeck in supporting the generally accepted model of the universe, known as the Aristotelian model or the Ptolemaic system. This held that the stars were fixed in their positions and unchanging; thus if an unusual event took place among the stars, this suggested that they could not be fixed in a 'firmament'. By arguing that the star was permanent rather than new, Delle Colombe defended the Aristotelian view, while suggesting reasons for why it had not previously been observed. In support of these arguments, delle Colombe drew not only on astronomical observations but on the authority of Aristotle, and of many other Peripatetic thinkers, including the Conimbricenses, Gasparo Contarini, and Julius Caesar Scaliger.

Galileo, then a professor at the University of Padua, lectured on the supernova, proposing different possible ways it could have been produced. Galileo was cautious in his views, but did regard the phenomenon as new, and not as a permanent star. A few months after delle Colombe's book appeared, a response to his ideas was published under the title of Considerations of Alimberto Mauri on Some Passages in the Discourse of Lodovico delle Colombe. Alimberto Mauri was a pseudonym and delle Colombe (like most scholars since) believed that the author was Galileo. The book ridiculed many of delle Colombe's views about the star, and belittled him as 'nostro colombo' ('our pigeon'). It asserted that astronomy had no need of Aristotelian philosophy, and should focus on observation and mathematics. The approach of first seeing something in the sky and then developing an elaborate explanation to make that observation fit with Aristotelian cosmology was directly challenged. Delle Colombe himself then responded to 'Mauri' by publishing Risposte piacevoli e curiose (Pleasant and curious replies) in 1608. In this text delle Colombe not only attacked the ideas of Copernicus, but associated them with Galileo by name.

The disputes between delle Colombe and Galileo grew more protracted when Galileo first published new findings which challenged Artistotelian cosmology, and then moved from Padua to Florence. In 1609 Galileo had built a telescope, through which he had observed the moons of Jupiter as well as the mountains and craters on the Moon. In March 1610 he published his findings in Siderius Nuncius (The Starry Messenger), which he dedicated to Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, naming the moons of Jupiter the 'Medician stars'. He then negotiated with the Grand Duke to secure for himself the position of Philosopher and Chief Mathematician at the court in Florence.

Galileo barely mentioned the motion of the Earth in Siderius Nuncius, as its focus was on his new discoveries. Nevertheless, in his discussion of earthshine he implied that the Earth changes its position rather than remaining static, and then added:

' Let these few remarks suffice us here concerning this matter, which will be more fully treated in our System of the World. In that book, by a multitude of arguments and experiences, the solar reflection from the earth will be shown to be quite real-against those who argue that the earth must be excluded from the dancing whirl of stars for the specific reason that it is devoid of motion and of light. We shall prove the earth to be a wandering body surpassing the moon in splendor, and not the sink of all dull refuse of the universe; this we shall support by an infinitude of arguments drawn from nature '

Galileo may have been trying to quietly introduce his more speculative ideas about the universe among the empirical observations made with his telescope, but these few sentences gave delle Colombe sufficient grounds to attack him at an apparent weak point, in an attempt to force him to defend the motion of the Earth specifically. In 1610, delle Colombe contested Galileo's views – though he did not mention Galileo by name – in his leaflet Contro il Moto della Terra (Against the Motion of the Earth). It was not printed, but circulated in manuscript form, mostly in Florence.