Historia von D. Johann Fausten (chapbook)

It was published by Johann Spies (1540–1623) in Frankfurt am Main in 1587, and became the main source for the play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and Goethe's closet play Faust, and also served as the libretto of the opera by Alfred Schnittke, also entitled Historia von D. Johann Fausten.

It comes down to us in manuscript from a professional scribe in Nuremberg and also as a 1587 imprint from the prominent Frankfurt publishing house of Johann Spies.

In accord with the theological reputation and clientele of the Spies printing house, their 1587 imprint is also heavily larded with religious commentary.

Such "admonitions to the Christian reader" played so well that by the end of the century they had grown to become the major part of the (printed) Faust Books.

The Historia may also have been the source of Thomas Roscoe's translation, "History of that Renowned Arch Sorcerer, Doctor J. Faust", published in The German Novelists (1826).