Ghilini was the first who used the term statistics in his unpublished treatise Ristretto della civile, politica, statistica e militare scienza (Alessandria, Bibl.

After the death of his wife he embraced the ecclesiastical life and resumed his studies, receiving a degree in canon law and theology.

[4] Later he became protonotary apostolic and titular of Saint James Abbey in the village of Cantalupo nel Sannio in southern Italy, but he probably never went there.

[5] Ghilini used sources available to him in Latin, including John Pitts' Relationum historicarum de rebus anglicis, published in paris in 1619.

Ghilini was the first to give a literary profile of many English writers unknown in Italy in his day, including Geoffrey Chaucer.