Faustian - Sources of The Legend

Sources of The Legend

The tale of Faust bears many similarities to the Theophilus legend recorded in the 13th century, writer Gautier de Coincy's Les Miracles de la Sainte Vierge. Here, a saintly figure makes a bargain with the keeper of the infernal world but is rescued from paying his debt to society through the mercy of the Blessed Virgin. A depiction of the scene in which he subordinates himself to the Devil appears on the north tympanum of the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris.

The first known printed source of the legend of Faust is a small chapbook bearing the title Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published in 1587. The book was re-edited and borrowed from throughout the 16th century. Other similar books of that period include:

• Das Wagnerbuch (1593)
• Das Widmann'sche Faustbuch (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)

The 1725 Faust chapbook was widely circulated and also read by the young Goethe.

The origin of Faust's name and persona remains unclear, though it is widely assumed to be based on the figure of Dr. Johann Georg Faust (c.1480–1540), a magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509. Scholars such as Frank Baron and Leo Ruickbie contest many of these previous assumptions.

Some sources also connect the legendary Faust with Johann Fust (c. 1400–1466), Johann Gutenberg's business partner. or suggest that Fust is one of the multiple origins to the Faust story.

Many aspects of the life of Simon Magus are echoed in the Faust legend of Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Hans Jonas writes, "surely few admirers of Marlowe's and Goethe's plays have an inkling that their hero is the descendant of a gnostic sectary and that the beautiful Helen called up by his art was once the fallen Thought of God through whose raising mankind was to be saved."

The character in Polish folklore named Pan Twardowski also presents similarities with Faust, and this legend seems to have originated at roughly the same time. It is unclear whether the two tales have a common origin or influenced each other. Pan Twardowski may be based on the life of a 16th-century German emigrant to the then-capital of Poland, Kraków, or possibly on John Dee or Edward Kelley. According to the theologian Philip Melanchthon, the historical Johann Faust had studied in Kraków as well.

Related tales about a pact between man and the Devil include the legend of Theophilus of Adana, the 5th-century bishop; and the plays Mariken van Nieumeghen (Dutch, early 16th century, author unknown) and Cenodoxus (German, early 17th century, by Jacob Bidermann).

The notes to one edition of Goethe's Faust assert that traits of the alchemists Agrippa and Paracelsus are combined into Goethe's version of the protagonist.