Dr. Johannes Faustus

Disclaimer

This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

Dr. Johannes Faustus

"Mediaeval German magician. Prolific author of books on witchcraft. Reputed to have been the greatest necromancer of his age. His occult performances became incorporated into legendary tales and grimoires. Rembrandt has an etching of Faust, represented as engaged in magic operation" (Wedeck 201).

Isaac D'Israeli's The Curiosities of Literature (1866) offers one theory of where "Dr. Faustus" may have originated:

The tradition of the Devil and Dr. Faustus was derived from the odd circumstance in which the Bibles of the first printer, Fust, appeared to the world. When he had discovered this new art, and printed off a considerable number of copies of the Bible, to imitate those which were commonly sold as MSS., he undertook the sale of them at Paris. It was his interest to conceal this discovery, and to pass off his printed copies for MSS. But as he was enabled to sell his Bibles at sixty crowns, while the other scribes demanded five hundred, this raised universal astonishment; and, still more, when he produced copies as fast as they were wanted, and even lowered his price. The uniformity of the copies increased wonder. Informations were given in to the magistrates against him as a magician; and in searching his lodgings a great number of copies were found. The red ink, and Fust's red ink is peculiarly brilliant, which embellished his copies, was said to be his blood; and it was solemnly adjudged that he was in league with the devil. Fust was at length obliged, to save himself from a bonfire, to reveal his art to the Parliament of Paris, who discharged him from all prosecution in consideration of this useful invention (Ashley 179).

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Dr. Johannes Faustus is copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.