<P> Staufen, a town in the extreme southwest of Germany, claims to be where Faust died (c. 1540); depictions appear on buildings, etc . The only historical source for this tradition is a passage in the Chronik der Grafen von Zimmern, which was written around 1565, 25 years after Faust's presumed death . These chronicles are generally considered reliable, and in the 16th century there were still family ties between the lords of Staufen and the counts of Zimmern in nearby Donaueschingen . </P> <P> In Christopher Marlowe's original telling of the tale, Wittenburg where Faust studied was also written as Wertenberge . This has led to a measure of speculation as to where precisely his story is set . Some scholars have suggested the Duchy of Württemberg; others have suggested an allusion to Marlowe's own Cambridge (Gill, 2008, p. 5), but the likely placement of Wittenberg is the historical capital of Württemberg, what is now the city of Stuttgart . </P> <P> The early Faust chapbook, while in circulation in northern Germany, found its way to England, where in 1592 an English translation was published, The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus credited to a certain "P.F., Gent (leman)". Christopher Marlowe used this work as the basis for his more ambitious play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (published c. 1604). Marlowe also borrowed from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, on the exchanges between Pope Adrian VI and a rival pope . </P> <P> Another important version of the incredible legend is the play Faust, written by the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . The first part, which is the one more closely connected to the earlier legend, was published in 1808, the second posthumously in 1832 . </P>

What 16th century english playwright wrote the first literary version of the faust legend