Johann Georg Faust - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dr. Johann Georg Faust also known in English as John Faustus (ˈ), was an itinerant alchemist

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

, astrologer

Astrologer

An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...

, and magician of the German Renaissance

German Renaissance

The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which originated from the Italian Renaissance in Italy...

. His life became the nucleus of the popular tale of Doctor Faust

Faust

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...

from circa the 1580s, notably culminating in Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

's play The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1604) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

's closet drama

Closet drama

A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group. A related form, the "closet screenplay," developed during the 20th century.-Form:...

Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...

(1808).

Historical Faust

Because of his early treatment as a figure in legend and literature, it is very difficult to establish historical facts about his life with any certainty. In the 17th century, it was even doubted that there ever had been a historical Faust, and the legendary character was identified with a printer of Mainz called Johann Fust
Johann Fust
Johann Fust was an early German printer.- Family background :Fust belonged to a rich and respectable burgher family of Mainz, traceable back to the early thirteenth-century; members of the family held many civil and religious offices.The name was always written Fust, but in 1506 Peter Schöffer, in...

. Johann Georg Neumann in 1683 addressed the question in his Disquisitio historica de Fausto praestigiatore, establishing Faust's historical existence based on contemporary references.

Possible places of origin of the historical Johann Faust are Knittlingen

Knittlingen

Knittlingen is a town in the Enz district in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.It lies at the eastern edge of the Kraichgau in the centre of a rectangle that is formed byHeidelberg, Karlsruhe, Heilbronn, and Stuttgart....

(Manlius 1562), Helmstadt

Helmstadt-Bargen

Helmstadt-Bargen is a town in the district of Rhein-Neckar in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.The town has three schools.The German musician Julian Thome lived there for many years....

near Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, or Roda

Stadtroda

Stadtroda is a town of 6,293 people, located in Thuringia, Germany. Stadtroda lies on the Roda river, a tributary of the Saale....

. Knittlingen today has an archive and a museum dedicated to Faust. According to the researches of Frank Baron and Dr Leo Ruickbie

Leo Ruickbie

Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of several books, beginning with Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a...

, the evidence most points to Helmstadt as his place of birth, or family name.

Faust's year of birth is given either as 1480/1 or as 1466. Baron (1992) and Ruickbie prefer the latter. The city archive of Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

has a letter dated 27 June 1528 which mentions a Doctor Jörg Faustus von Haidlberg. Other sources have Georgius Faustus Helmstet(ensis). Baron, searching for students from Helmstet in the archives of Heidelberg University, found records of a Georgius Helmstetter inscribed from 1483 to 1487. This student exceptionally refused to reveal his surname. He was promoted to baccalaureus on 12 July 1484 and to magister artium on 1 March 1487.

For the year 1506, there is a record of Faust appearing as performer of magical tricks and horoscopes in Gelnhausen

Gelnhausen

Gelnhausen is a town and the capital of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approx. 40 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main, between the Vogelsberg mountains and the Spessart range at the river Kinzig...

. Over the following 30 years, there are numerous similar records spread over southern Germany. Faust appeared as physician, doctor of philosophy, alchemist, magician and astrologer, and was often accused as a fraud. The church denounced him as a blasphemer in league with the devil.

Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius , born Johann Heidenberg, was a German abbot, lexicographer, historian, cryptographer, polymath and occultist who had an influence on later occultism. The name by which he is more commonly known is derived from his native town of Trittenheim on the Mosel in Germany.-Life:He...

in a letter to Johannes Virdung

Johannes Virdung

Johann, Hans or Johannes Virdung of Hassfurt was a celebrated astrologer of the early sixteenth century. He had an official position at Heidelberg, at the court of the Elector Palatine. He wrote various works under generic names , including a millennarian work, Practica von dem Entchrist.He was a...

dated 20 August 1507 warns the latter of a certain Georgius Sabellicus, a trickster and fraud styling himself Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus etc. According to Trithemius, in Selnhausen and Würzburg Sabellicus boasted blasphemously of his powers, even claiming that he could easily reproduce all the miracles of Christ. In 1507, Trithemius alleges, he received a teaching position in Sickingen, which he abused by indulging in sodomy with his male students, evading punishment by a timely escape.

Conrad Mutianus Rufus in 1513 recounts a meeting with a chiromanticus called Georgius Faustus, Helmitheus Heidelbergensis (likely for hemitheus, "demigod of Heidelberg"), overhearing his vain and foolish boasts in an Erfurt

Erfurt

Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...

inn.

On 23 February 1520, Faust was in Bamberg

Bamberg

Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...

, doing a horoscope for the bishop and the town, for which he received the sum of 10 gulden.

In 1528, Faust visited Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt

, from whence he was banished shortly after. In 1532 he seems to have tried to enter Nürnberg, according to an unflattering note made by the junior mayor of the city to "deny free passage to the great nigromancer and sodomite Doctor Faustus" (Doctor Faustus, dem großen Sodomiten und Nigromantico in furt glait ablainen )
Later records give a more positive verdict, thus the Tübingen

Tübingen

Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

professor Joachim Camerarius

Joachim Camerarius

Joachim Camerarius , the Elder was a German classical scholar.-Life:He was born at Bamberg, Bavaria...

in 1536 recognises Faust as a respectable astrologer, and physician Philipp Begardi of Worms

Worms, Germany

Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...

in 1539 praises his medical knowledge.
The last direct attestation of Faust dates to 25 June 1535, when his presence was recorded in Münster

Münster

Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

during the Anabaptist rebellion

Münster Rebellion

The Münster Rebellion was an attempt by radical Anabaptists to establish a communal sectarian government in the German city of Münster. The city became an Anabaptist center from 1534 to 1535, and fell under Anabaptist rule for 18 months — from February 1534, when the city hall was seized and...

.

Faust's death is dated to 1540 or 1541. He allegedly died in an explosion of an alchemical experiment in the "Hotel zum Löwen" in Staufen im Breisgau. His body is reported to have been found in a "grievously mutilated" state which was interpreted to the effect that the devil had come to collect him in person by his clerical and scholarly enemies. While the exact year of his death is uncertain, we can assume he died before 1548, in which year the theologian Johann Gast in his sermones conviviales states that Faust had suffered a dreadful death, and would keep turning his face to the earth in spite of the body being turned on its back several times.

In his 1548 account, Gast mentions a personal meeting with Faust in Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

during which Faust provided the cook with poultry of a strange kind. According to Gast, Faust travelled with a dog and a horse, and there were rumours that the dog would sometimes transform into a servant.

Another posthumous account is that of Johannes Manlius, drawing on notes by Melanchthon, in his Locorum communium collectanea dating to 1562. According to Manlius, Johannes Faustus was a personal acquaintance of Melanchthon's and had studied in Krakow

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. Manlius' account is already suffused with legendary elements, and cannot be taken at face value as a historical source. Manlius recounts that Faust had boasted that the victories of the German emperor in Italy were due to his magical intervention. In Venice, he allegedly attempted to fly, but was thrown to the ground by the devil. Johannes Wier in de prestigiis daemonum (1568) recounts that Faustus had been arrested in Batenburg

Batenburg

Batenburg is a village in the municipality of Wijchen, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is located on the Meuse, about 15 km west of Nijmegen...

because he had recommended that the local chaplain called Dorstenius should use arsenic

Arsenic

Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...

to get rid of his stubble. Dorstenius smeared his face with the poison, upon which he lost not only his beard but also much of his skin, an anecdote Wier says he heard from the victim himself. Philipp Camerarius in 1602 still claims to have heard tales of Faust directly from people who had met him in person, but from the publication of the 1587 Faustbuch, it becomes impossible to separate historical anecdotes from rumour and legend.

In the light of records of an activity spanning more than 30 years, it has been suggested that there were two itinerant magicians calling themselves Faustus, one Georg, active ca. 1505 to 1515, and another Johann, active in the 1530s. This cannot be disproved, but neither is there a compelling reason to accept it. Even assuming the earlier date of birth, Faust would have died at the above-average but not impossible age of 74 or 75.

Ascribed works

There are several grimoire

Grimoire

A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...

s or alchemical treatises ascribed to Faust, some of which appeared during his lifetime and may be considered his work, or plagiarisms thereof:

1501 Doctor Faustens dreyfacher Höllenzwang (Passau 1407[sic], Rome 1501, reprint Scheible 1849, ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 2, Munich 1976, 1977)
1501 Geister-Commando (Tabellae Rabellinae Geister Commando id est Magiae Albae et Nigrae Citatio Generalis), Rome (reprint Scheible 1849, ARW, "Moonchild-Edition" 3, Munich 1977)
1501 D.Faustus vierfacher Höllen-Zwang (Rome 1501, reprint Scheible 1849, ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 4, Munich 1976, 1977)
1520 Fausts dreifacher Höllenzwang (D.Faustus Magus Maximus Kundlingensis Original Dreyfacher Höllenzwang id est Die Ägyptische Schwarzkunst), "Egyptian Nigromancy, magical seals for the invocation of seven spirits. (reprint ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 3, Munich 1976, 1977)
1524 Johannis Fausti Manual Höllenzwang (Wittenberg 1524 reprint Scheible 1849, ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 6, Munich 1976, 1977)
1527 Praxis Magia Faustiana, (Passau, reprint Scheible 1849, ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 4, Munich 1976, 1977;)
1540, Fausti Höllenzwang oder Mirakul-Kunst und Wunder-Buch (Wittenberg 1540, reprint Scheible 1849, ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 4, Munich 1976, 1977)
Doctor Fausts großer und gewaltiger Höllenzwang (Prague, reprint ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 7, Munich 1977)
1669? Dr. Johann Faustens Miracul-Kunst- und Wunder-Buch oder der schwarze Rabe auch der Dreifache Höllenzwang genannt (Lyon M.C.D.XXXXXXIX, reprint ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 7, Munich 1977)
D.I.Fausti Schwartzer Rabe (undated, 16th century, reprint Scheible 1849, ARW, "Moonchild-Edition" 3, Munich 1976, 1977)
1692 Doctor Faust's großer und gewaltiger Meergeist, worinn Lucifer und drey Meergeister um Schätze aus den Gewässern zu holen, beschworen werden (Amsterdam, reprint ARW "Moonchild-Edition" 1, Munich 1977)

These works were reprinted in Das Kloster
Das Kloster
Das Kloster Das Kloster Das Kloster ("The Cloister"; full title Das Kloster. Weltlich und geistlich. Meist aus der ältern deutschen Volks-, Wunder-, Curiositäten-, und vorzugsweise komischen Literatur "The Cloister. Profane and sacred...

by J. Scheible (1849), and based on Scheible in 1976 and 1977 by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Religions- und Weltanschauungsfragen, in the (ironically-titled) "Moonchild-Edition", and again as facsimile by Poseidon Press and Fourier Verlag.

Faust in legend and literature

The Historia von D. Johann Fausten
Historia von D. Johann Fausten
Historia von D. Johann Fausten, the first "Faust book", is a chapbook of stories concerning the life of Johann Georg Faust, written by an anonymous German author...

printed by Johann Spies

Johann Spies

Johann Spies was a German printer who published an anonymous book of tales about a legendary Doctor Faust who made a pact with the Devil. The story became the basis for several notable literary works, including Marlowe's Tragedy of Doctor Faustus and Goethe's Faust.Spies published the book in 1587...

1587, a German chapbook

Chapbook

A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...

about Faust's sins, is at the beginning of the literary tradition of the Faust

Faust

character. It was translated into English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

in 1587, where it came to the attention of Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

. Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge...

of 1589 portrays Faust as the archetypical adept of Renaissance magic

Renaissance magic

Renaissance humanism saw a resurgence in hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of ceremonial magic.The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, saw the rise of scientism, in such forms as the substitution of chemistry for alchemy, the dethronement of the Ptolemaic theory of...

. In the 17th century, Marlowe's work was re-introduced to Germany in the form of popular plays, which over time reduced Faust to a merely comical figure for popular amusement. Meanwhile, the chapbook of Spies was edited and excerpted by G. R. Widmann and Nikolaus Pfitzer, and was finally re-published anonymously in modernised form in the early 18th century, as the Faustbuch des Christlich Meynenden. This edition became widely known and was also read by Goethe in his youth. As summarized by Richard Stecher, this version is the account of a young man called Johann Faust, son of a peasant, who studies theology in Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

, besides medicine, astrology and "other magical arts". His boundless desire for knowledge leads him to conjure the devil in a wood near Wittenberg, who appears in the shape of a greyfriar who calls himself Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles is a demon featured in German folklore...

. Faust enters a pact with the devil, pledging his soul in exchange for 24 years of service. The devil produces a famulus Christoph Wagner and a poodle Prästigiar to accompany Faust in his adventure. Faust goes on to live a life of pleasures. In Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, he rides out of Auerbachs Keller

Auerbachs Keller

Auerbachs Keller is the best known and second oldest restaurant in Leipzig. It was described in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust I, as the first place Mephistopheles takes Faust on their travels....

on a barrel. In Erfurt

Erfurt

he taps wine from a table. He visits the Pope in Rome, the Sultan in Constantinople and the Kaiser in Innsbruck. After 16 years, he begins to regret his pact and wants to withdraw, but the devil persuades him to renew it, conjuring up Helen of Troy, with whom Faust sires a son called Justus. As the 24 years are over, "Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

, chief of devils" appears and announces Faust's death for the coming night. Faust at a "last supper" scene in Rimlich takes leave of his friends and admonishes them to repentance and piety. At midnight, there is a great noise from Faust's room, and in the morning, its walls and floors are found splattered with blood and brains, with Faust's eyes lying on the floor and his dead body in the courtyard.

16th to 18th century treatments of the Faust legend include:

Johann Spies: Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587)
Das Wagnerbuch von (1593)
Das Widmann'sche Faustbuch von (1599)
Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Höllenzwang (Frankfurt 1609)
Dr. Johannes Faust, Magia naturalis et innaturalis (Passau 1612)
Das Pfitzer'sche Faustbuch (1674)
Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Meergeist (Amsterdam 1692)
Das Wagnerbuch (1714)
Faustbuch des Christlich Meynenden (1725)

Literature

Frank Baron: Dr. Faustus: From History to Legend. München: Fink 1978. ISBN 3‐7705‐1539‐0
Frank Baron: Faustus on Trial. The Origin of Johann Spies's Historia in an Age of Witch-hunting. Tübingen: Niemeyer 1992. ISBN 3‐484‐36509‐9
Fritz Brukner, Franz Hadamowsky: Die Wiener Faust-Dichtungen von Stranitzky bis zu Goethes Tod. Wien 1932.
Carl Kiesewetter: Faust in der Geschichte und Tradition. Berlin 1921
Günther Mahal: Faust: Untersuchungen zu einem zeitlosen Thema. Neuried: ars una 1998 (Abdruck der Dokumente über Faust mit Erläuterungen). ISBN 3‐89391‐306‐8
Günther Mahal: Faust. Die Spuren eines geheimnisvollen Lebens. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt 1995. ISBN 3‐499‐13713‐5
Frank Möbius (Hrsg.): Faust: Annäherung an einen Mythos. Ausstellungskatalog. Göttingen: Wallenstein 1995.
Leo Ruickbie
Leo Ruickbie
Leo Ruickbie is an historian and sociologist of magic, witchcraft and Wicca. He is the author of several books, beginning with Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, a 2004 publication outlining the history of witchcraft from ancient Greece until the modern day. Ruickbie was born in Scotland and took a...

: Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician. The History Press 2009. ISBN 978-0‐7509‐5090‐9
Karl Theens: Geschichte der Faustgestalt vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. Meisenheim 1948.

External links

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
Faust legends
Volksbuch von Dr. Faust in der Bibliotheka Augustana
Faust-Museum Knittlingen
Faust als Spiegel der Geschichte: Vortrag im Rahmen der Reihe Wissenschaft, Technik und Ethik
Faust timeline
D. Johanni Fausti ... Nürnberg: 1695 (German)

Grimoires attributed to Faust

The Black Raven Doctor Johannes Faust's Miracle and Magic Book or also called the Threefold Coercion of Hell (English translation of Dr. Johann Faustens Miracul-Kunst- und Wunder-Buch oder der schwarze Rabe auch der Dreifache Höllenzwang genannt)
Magia naturalis et innaturalis, oder dreifacher Höllenzwang, letztes Testament und Siegelkunst - Part I (Google Books)
Magia naturalis et innaturalis, oder dreifacher Höllenzwang, letztes Testament und Siegelkunst - Part IV (Google Books)