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Temperature: 15.4°C
Conditions: Clear
Wind Speed: 0.0km/h
Wind Direction: NE
Today’s Faust’s House in the corner of Charles Square has been connected with many mysterious legends since time immemorial, and therefore attracting all mystery lovers.
The legend of Dr. Faust, a solitary man looking for fulfilment of human life in a magic way, has been known in several versions, all of which say that the doctor in question lived in Germany in the 15th century. A German scholar of the same name lived in Prague at the beginning of the 16th century, but his house was in Melantrichova street. Even Jan Amos Komenský mentions the mysterious man Jan Faust, inventor of “black magic”, in his Didactica Magna, stating that he died in 1466. The book Maggia Innaturalis from 1505, signed by Doctor Iohannis Faust and full of medieval magic, is also significant in this context. Who then inspired the legends, and to what extent, remains unclear.
It has never been documented that the mysterious doctor Johannes Faust ever lived in the house no. 40 on Charles Square. What is certain, however, is that Faust’s House has always attracted strange characters, and many of its inhabitants pursued alchemy. The best known of them was the famous court alchemist of emperor Rudolph II., Edward Kelley, who bought the house in 1590. He was surely attracted by its equipped alchemist lab with a tradition of over one hundred years, in which he then worked in his spare time.
However, Kelley’s successful period ended soon. After killing the chamberlain Jiří Hunkler in a duel in 1591, he was arrested and imprisoned at Křivoklát castle. Emperor Rudolph so keenly awaited the results of the Englishman’s laboratory work that he decided to use this very opportunity to obtain them. When Rudolph’s envoys failed to obtain Kelley’s secret by fair means, they used violence against him by order of the emperor. On 12th June 1591 the alchemist was subjected to cruel torture, but even so he didn’t reveal anything about preparation of the »philosopher’s stone«, either because he didn’t know anything, or because he honoured the basic imperative of true initiates, which was the obligation not to disclose anything. Kelley finally attempted a prison break, but his rope snapped while he was descending to the moat, and the fall shattered his leg which was then amputated. Even emperor Rudolph took pity on him after this accident and at the pleas of the alchemist’s many supporters, especially Vilém of Rožmberk, Kelley was released. It was then that the alchemist wrote his tractate De Lapide Philosophorum which he dedicated to emperor Rudolph.
The legend of Dr. Faust, a solitary man looking for fulfilment of human life in a magic way, has been known in several versions, all of which say that the doctor in question lived in Germany in the 15th century. A German scholar of the same name lived in Prague at the beginning of the 16th century, but his house was in Melantrichova street. Even Jan Amos Komenský mentions the mysterious man Jan Faust, inventor of “black magic”, in his Didactica Magna, stating that he died in 1466. The book Maggia Innaturalis from 1505, signed by Doctor Iohannis Faust and full of medieval magic, is also significant in this context. Who then inspired the legends, and to what extent, remains unclear.
It has never been documented that the mysterious doctor Johannes Faust ever lived in the house no. 40 on Charles Square. What is certain, however, is that Faust’s House has always attracted strange characters, and many of its inhabitants pursued alchemy. The best known of them was the famous court alchemist of emperor Rudolph II., Edward Kelley, who bought the house in 1590. He was surely attracted by its equipped alchemist lab with a tradition of over one hundred years, in which he then worked in his spare time.
However, Kelley’s successful period ended soon. After killing the chamberlain Jiří Hunkler in a duel in 1591, he was arrested and imprisoned at Křivoklát castle. Emperor Rudolph so keenly awaited the results of the Englishman’s laboratory work that he decided to use this very opportunity to obtain them. When Rudolph’s envoys failed to obtain Kelley’s secret by fair means, they used violence against him by order of the emperor. On 12th June 1591 the alchemist was subjected to cruel torture, but even so he didn’t reveal anything about preparation of the »philosopher’s stone«, either because he didn’t know anything, or because he honoured the basic imperative of true initiates, which was the obligation not to disclose anything. Kelley finally attempted a prison break, but his rope snapped while he was descending to the moat, and the fall shattered his leg which was then amputated. Even emperor Rudolph took pity on him after this accident and at the pleas of the alchemist’s many supporters, especially Vilém of Rožmberk, Kelley was released. It was then that the alchemist wrote his tractate De Lapide Philosophorum which he dedicated to emperor Rudolph.
May
24
Current Conditions : 15.4C, Clear 4:21AM CEST
Temperature: 15.4°C
Conditions: Clear
Wind Speed: 0.0km/h
Wind Direction: NE
Temperature: 15.4°C
Conditions: Clear
Wind Speed: 0.0km/h
Wind Direction: NE
