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. The post was, at Thi­lo’s re­quest, kept open for two years, dur­ing which Thi­lo 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 years 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 was with them 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: 1642-44), and in the Neu Preuss­iches voll­ständ­ig­es Ge­sang Buch (Kö­nigs­berg: 1650).

Hymns

1. Mit Ernst, o Mensch­en­kin­der
   • O Sons of Men, Your Spir­its
   • Ye Sons of Men, in Ear­nest
   • Ye Sons of Men, Oh, Heark­en