Introduction

Biography

Thilo ma­tri­cu­lat­ed in 1624 at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kö­nigs­berg as a theo­lo­gy stu­dent, but de­vot­ed him­self es­pe­cial­ly to the stu­dy of rhe­tor­ic. When the Pro­fess­or of Rhe­tor­ic, Sam­uel Fuchs, re­tired in 1632, he re­com­mend­ed Thi­lo as his suc­cess­or.

At Thi­lo’s re­quest, the post was kept op­en for two years, dur­ing which he pur­sued his stu­dies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ley­den. On re­turn­ing to Kö­nigs­berg, he re­ceived his MA de­gree on Ap­ril 20, 1634, then be­came Pro­fess­or of Rhe­tor­ic. Dur­ing his 28 year ten­ure, he was five times elect­ed dean of the Phi­lo­so­phi­cal Fac­ul­ty, and twice as uni­ver­si­ty rec­tor.

Thilo was a great friend of Hein­rich Al­bert and Si­mon Dach, and with them was a mem­ber of the Kö­nigs­berg Po­et­ic­al Un­ion. Thi­lo wrote two text­books on rhe­tor­ic, pub­lished in 1635 and 1647.

His hymns were al­most all writ­ten for va­ri­ous fes­tiv­als of the Chris­tian year; they ap­peared main­ly in the Preuss­iche Fest-Lied­er (El­bing [now El­bląg, Po­land]: 1642–44), and in the Neu Preuss­ich­es voll­stän­dig­es Ge­sang Buch (Kö­nigs­berg: 1650).