Luigi Galimberti (26 April 1836 – 7 May 1896) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who had a varied career as an academic and theologian, journalist, diplomat, and Vatican official.

[1] Luigi Galimberti was born in Rome on 26 April 1836, the son of a family of lawyers; his mother was the second cousin of Pope Leo XIII.

In the run-up to the conclave of 1878 he and Cardinal Alessandro Franchi promoted the candidacy of Vincenzo Pecci–who proved to be the successful candidate–to other journalists.

[4] The resulting reconciliation between the Holy See and the German Empire, and Galimberti's apparent sympathy for the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, earned him the distrust of the French, which may have prevented his appointment as Secretary of State following the death of Cardinal Luigi Jacobini in February 1887, though Galimberti had taken on the role of Secretary of State from October 1886 to May 1887, during Jacobini's illness and immediately after his death.

In 1889, following the double suicide of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress at Mayerling, Galimberti kept the German ambassador apprised of the latest information on the case, what one historian calls "highly placed gossip", and he continued to answer related inquiries about the Vatican's rumored denial of Rudolf's request for an annulment of his marriage.