Paolo Dagomari was born in 1288, into one of the most well known and ancient families in Prato. They were members of the "Ghibellini Party", and often held important positions in the Town Hall. Paolo studied all his life, becoming one of the most well known scientists of the 14th century. He is mentioned in many writings of his time: even Giovanni Boccaccio, who had been a friend of his, praised him as a mathematic and an astrologist, in his "De Genealogia Deorum". Paolo's interests also included literature, even though, his short poems are not very good. However his skills in Maths and Geometry were universally recognised: he wrote one of the most ancient manuals of Algebra in the Italian language ("Regoluzze del Maestro Paolo Astrologo"), and invented the method of the coma for each three figures, to allow the numbers to be read more easily.