The Commemoration of the Dead and Epic Composition

This paper discusses the image and reception of the Thirty Years War's Catholic military leader Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly in Jesuit Neo-Latin epical poetry of the 17th century, starting with Magni Tillij Parentalia written by Jacobus Balde, a prosimetrical work that came into being immediatly after the 'hero's' death but was posthumously published in 1678, using epical patterns such as picture descriptions or similia not only in metrical parts of the work, but also in prose fiction. The text shows Tilly as a pillar of the Holy Roman Empire and Catholic faith as well. Affiliated are shorter reflections of further Jesuit Neo-Latin poems such as Bellicum Tillij (1634) by Jacobus Bidermann, Johannes Bisselius' Icaria (1637), and Jacobus Damianus' Bellum Germanicum (1648).