The Enigma of Faust’s House

The so-called Faust House on the southern edge of Charles Square, now Prague’s municipal pharmacy at nos. 502 and 503, has been surrounded by mysterious legends since its beginnings. Undoubtedly the unusual owners who, by a strange coincidence, succeeded one another here contributed to its reputation. In Rudolfine times the English alchemist Edward Kelley lived here (see Jílové u Prahy). Around 1724 it belonged to the Mladota of Solopysky family, of whom Josef Petr practised alchemy and was known for his physical and chemical experiments. The house perhaps owes its fame particularly to him. According to legend, however, the legendary Dr Faust once lived here. A massive two-storey oriel rises at the northwestern corner, its upper floor covered by a dome. Through it the Devil Mephistopheles supposedly carried Dr Faust away after the expiry of their pact sealed in blood. Curiously, mysterious stains repeatedly appear where the alleged hole was. The real Dr Johannes, or Georgius, Faust was born around 1480. He led an adventurous life: in the early sixteenth century he wandered central Germany, taught at Kreuznach in the Rhineland, then worked in Erfurt and drew up a horoscope for the bishop in Bamberg. He practised black magic and was expelled from Ingolstadt in 1528 and Nuremberg in 1532. He died around 1536. His personality was so unusual that the legend of his pact with the Devil began during his lifetime. He personifies the ever-seeking human being whose inner development leads from disappointed intellect towards exalted experience. Literature on Faust can broadly be divided into two groups. The first consists of “Faustiana,” depicting his troubled life and rebellion against God from various viewpoints. It begins with the History of Dr Faust published by J. Spiess in 1587, followed by Christopher Marlowe’s play, popular versions of the stories, Lessing and J. W. Goethe, and continues to the present. The second consists of editions of the so-called Höllenzwangs, magical grimoires describing ceremonial magic and attributed, apparently wrongly, to Faust himself. Among the best-known works of “Faustian magical ritual” is Magia naturalis et innaturalis, first published in Passau in the sixteenth century. His legend probably reached Bohemia with English players around the turn of the seventeenth century and was enriched here with elements associated with his older counterpart, the magician Žito at King Wenceslas IV’s court. In 1611 the Old Town council scribe Martin Karchesius published his History of Dr Faust, beginning a series of popular editions extending to the previous century’s Comedy of Dr Faust by the puppeteer Matěj Kopecký. Much has always been unclear about the mysterious figure of Faust. Czech contributions to research have added considerably to the speculation by drawing on the medieval bachelor Šťastný of Příbram, who supposedly adopted the then-customary Latin rendering of his name, Faustus, in Germany.