Very little is known about his early life, although the Augustinian friar Jordan of Quedlinburg claimed in his "Liber Vitasfratrum" that Giles belonged to the noble Colonna family of Rome. But Jordan of Saxony was not a contemporary of Giles, and many scholars remain skeptical of his account of Giles' early life. Having entered the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine in Rome, he was sent by his Order to the University of Paris for his philosophical and theological studies, and there became a disciple of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas, and was later appointed to teach at the university, being the first of his Order to do so. It has been estimated that Giles was taught by Thomas Aquinas between 1269 and 1272, and in the years that followed, he produced many of his commentaries on the works of Aristotle, who had been experiencing an intellectual revival during the thirteenth century, and he also produced his commentary on Peter Lombard's "Sentences". Giles remained in Paris studying and teaching theology until Bishop Étienne Tempier condemned the application of Aristotelianism within the Christian discourse, including those who had produced commentaries on Aristotle's work. Giles, whose work had been condemned, disappeared from the Parisian academic scene.