an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge.

Doctor Johann Faust, a person born at Kundling (Knittlingen), Würtemberg, or at Roda, near Weimar, and said to have died in 1588. He was a man of licentious character, a magician, astrologer, and soothsayer, who boasted of performing the miracles of Christ. It was believed that he was carried off at last by the devil, who had lived with him in the form of a black dog.

Also known as Faust, first name John or Johann. He appears in an old German legend, where he was a doctor, alchemist and magician who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. His story is the basis of Marlowe’s play ‘Doctor Faustus’.