(b Amsterdam, 13–21 Aug 1621; d Leiden, bur. 8 Oct 1653). Dutch lawyer. His father was Anthony Thijs, a merchant in Amsterdam. Thysius enrolled at the University of Leiden on 13 August 1635 and read philology and law. Between 1646 and 1648 he travelled in France and England to further his studies. Returning to Leiden he registered again on 27 August 1648 and graduated in law on 21 August 1652.
He owned an important library and founded the Bibliotheca Thysiana. In it is preserved a manuscript lutebook in French seven-line tablature. Though several scholars have suggested more hands, the volume was probably compiled by the Amsterdam minister Adrian Joriszoon Smout (b Rotterdam, c1580; d Rotterdam, Feb 1646), as a reference ‘Johan Thijs wt d' Auctie van Smoutius’ in the manuscript suggests, from his student time in Leiden (1595–1601) into at least the 1620s. With some 452 pieces, mostly for solo lute, it is the richest Dutch collection of lute music and one which shows the international aspect of musical taste in the Netherlands at that time. The manuscript contains intabulations of Dutch, English, French and Italian songs, Reformation psalms, motets and some 164 dances, mainly French, English, Italian and Dutch in origin, as well as six fantasias, including one by Francesco da Milano. Claude Le Jeune, Claude Goudimel, Orlande de Lassus, Peter Philips and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck may be singled out among the composers of the songs on which the lute intabulations are based, and John Dowland, Robert Jones and Thomas Robinson are among the composers of the dances. A few pieces come from collections by E. Adriaensen published in Antwerp in 1584 and 1592. Interestingly, many of the numerous English song and dance tunes are also found in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. The pavan by ‘Signor Thysio’ in Rude's Flores musicae, ii (Heidelberg, 1600) is not by Johan Thysius, as Eitner supposed.
J.P.N. Land: ‘Het Luitboek van Thysius beschreven en toegelicht’, TVNM, i/3 (1884), 129–95; i/4 (1885), 205–64; ii/1 (1885), 1–56; ii/2 (1886), 109–74; ii/3 (1887), 177–9; ii/4 (1887), 278–350; iii/1 (1888), 1–57; pubd separately (Amsterdam, 1889) [incl. edn of the 6 fantasias and, for most pieces, the basic melody]
R. Eitner: ‘Besprechung der Arbeit Land's’ MMg, xviii (1886), 39–43; xix (1887), 11–12
F. Kossmann: ‘Die Melodie des “Wilhelmus von Nassouwe” in den Lautenbearbeitungen des XVII. Jahrhunderts’, AMw, v (1923), 329–31 [incl. edn of 5 pieces]
R.B. Evenhuis: Ook dat was Amsterdam, i (Amsterdam, 1965), 271–3, 311–14
F. Noske: ‘Early Sources of the Dutch National Anthem (1574–1626)’, FAM, xiii (1966), 87–94
HANS RADKE