The Revelation of St. John (1558) - Page 22

Bb iii

One crowned sits in a cloud and sends a sickle into the earth. Angels harvest the grapes and tread them.
Revelation 14.
original Latin: "In nube coronatus sedens, misit falcem in terram. Angeli uindemiant, & calcant. Apocal. 14."

A crowned one sitting in the clouds sends sickles The original German uses "hepen," referring to a curved pruning hook or harvest knife. upon the earth. Angels cut the grapevines and tread the winepress.
Revelation 14.
original German: "Ein gekrönter in wolcken sitzend / schicket hepen vff erden. Engel schneiden weinreben / vnd keltern. Apo. 14."

This page illustrates the final "harvest" of humanity, a dual vision of judgment described in the Book of Revelation. The figure seated on the cloud, wearing a golden crown and holding a sharp sickle, is traditionally identified as Christ (the "Son of Man"). He performs the first harvest, often interpreted as the gathering of the faithful.

The second part of the scene involves the "vintage of the earth." Unlike the grain harvest, this involves angels gathering grapes and casting them into the "great winepress of the wrath of God." The woodcut accompanying this text (described in the metadata) would have shown the visceral reality of 16th-century viticulture—treading grapes by foot—reimagined as a divine process where the "juice" produced is a symbol of judgment. For a reader of this period, these agricultural metaphors made the abstract concept of the "End of Days" feel immediate, tangible, and deeply urgent.