Giles of Rome was probably born at Rome around 1243; no exact date is recorded for his birth, and the estimate is based on his likely ages at various stages of his career. He entered the Augustinian Hermits shortly before his fifteenth birthday at the monastery of Santa Maria del Populo in Rome. Sometime after completing his novitiate in 1259 he was sent to the new Augustinian foundation at Paris at the direction of the general of the order, Clement de Osimo. His early academic career remains relatively unknown, but the surmised dates of his early works and their profusion indicate considerable work and ability. Thomas Aquinas was among the masters under whom he studied or, at least, whose lectures he attended while Thomas was at Paris from 1269 to 1272.

The first period of Giles's literary output corresponds to the period during which he was a student and young teacher at...