Some very rational theories as to the origin of the Faust legend have been offered over the years.Before we tell you the first one, we remind readers that Faust was a crazed student who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. One day the devil, Mephisto, came to collect his debt - and carried a kicking, screaming Faust off to hell through a hole he had made in the roof of Faust's house.
Now, it is known that Faust lived in Prague - in a large house on the southwest corner of Charles Square in the New Town. The theory has it that his brother was in the Jesuit seminary at the Klementinum in the Old Town and - though visitors were strictly forbidden - Faust would sometimes go visit his brother at the seminary in the middle of the night in secret.
The Jesuits are a learned order - and even as their comrades in Italy were literally putting the screws on Galileo to recant, those in Prague built an observatory in the Klementinum's west tower in Prague.
Faust became so enamored of stargazing in the Jesuit's observatory that he installed his own telescope at home - which explains the hole in the roof, since a telescope inside your house isn't much good without one.
When you add to that Faust's comings and goings at all sorts of odd hours (to visit his brother) and the weird people who came to visit him - and the way people talk and the way rumors get started - it's easy to see how the whole thing might have gotten out of hand (especially when the weird guy with the goatee and the horns started showing up for afternoon tea).
© Copyright 1997 Radio Prague All Rights Reserved
Document URL: http://www.radio.cz/history/faust.html
Contact info:
Radio Prague, Vinohradska 12, 12099 Prague 2, Czech Republic