Did Doctor Faustus Sell his Soul?

Everyone believes Faustus invoked the Devil and sold his soul, but did he? Find out why the legend was the witchcraft trial of a dead man in this rich and vivid story of magic and magicians in the Renaissance. Highly recommended.

Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician

Reviews

Dan Harms - "... the most thorough treatment of the Renaissance magus Faust."

I don’t know what I pay you guys for, because nobody mentioned to me that the most thorough treatment of the Renaissance magus Faust, Leo Ruickbie’s Faustus, had just appeared. Nevertheless, you’re all forgiven, and I’ll review it for you.

Writing a biography of Jorg Faust is an extremely daunting task. First, you have the historic references to him, which are so spotty that some have questioned whether Faust really existed and often considerably polemic in nature. Then you have the legends from the various Faustbooks, which seem to be little more than fanciful morality tales of magical shenanigans with a few place names and historic figures thrown in here and there. Finally, you have the Faustian grimoires, derivative works of ceremonial magic designed to cash in on the fame of the magician. In short, it’s a tremendous mess for anyone who’s trying to learn about the most infamous wizard in Western history.

This is the task that Leo Ruickbie sets out to do, and his solution is novel. Working with the historical evidence, he assesses it and uses it to set up likely dates when Faust was in particular places. Within this framework, he assesses the legends of Faust, speaking of the possibility of whether he really could have been in Ingolstadt or Wittenberg at a particular time as the legend suggests. He also discusses the Faustian grimoires, placing them in the biography at the time in Faust’s life to which they are attributed. Describing this makes the whole affair sound simply awful, but it results in an often-entertaining semi-biographical account of Faust and his times without eschewing historical accuracy or giving inordinate credit to legends or fraudulent statements.

Ruickbie also provides us with some interesting new perspectives on Faust. For example, he gives a likely first name (Jorg, instead of the legendary Johannes), his origin (likely from a noble family in Heidelberg, not Wittenberg), a birth-date (April 23, 1466), and even a possible post with the Hospitallers. If nothing else, this should incite a great deal of scholarly debate over Faust which has been needed for some time.

Dan Harms, 3 July 2009 http://danharms.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/on-the-shelf-review-%e2%80%93-ruickbie%e2%80%99s-faustus-the-life-and-times-of-a-renaissance-magician/

Dan Harms is a lecturer and writer on the work of H.P. Lovecraft and related topics. He is the author of The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia (Elder Signs Press, 2008) and with John Wisdom Gonce III of The Necronomicon Files (Red Wheel Weiser, 2003).

Explore Faustus

• What's it about?
• "A gripping page-turner..." - Prof Osman Durrani
• "A fascinating read" - Pagan Dawn
• "The most thorough treatment" - Dan Harms
• Table of Contents
• Search the index (extended)
• Is it Time to Sell Your Soul? | Watkins Review Article | Dealing with the Devil

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Keywords

Faustus, Faust, magic, black magic, alchemy, astrology, necromancy, witchcraft, grimoires, Germany, Renaissance, sixteenth century, Goethe, Marlowe, biography, history, folklore, legend, Devil, Mephistopheles, pact, damnation, soul

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