Wild Boar in the Vineyard: Martin Luther at the Birth of the Modern World

Click here for item information

German New Testament
Wittenberg: [s.n., 1524]
Burke Union Rare Folio CB77 1524

The third Wittenberg folio edition of Luther's translation. Woodcut illustrations of the Apocalypse of St. John, from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, depict the defeat of the satanic dragon at the conclusion of that visionary work. The Apocalypse was a favored subject of artists. In Luther’s day, speculation about the end of days and a vivid sense of the “porous” nature of the cosmos – its openness to otherworldly powers of good and evil – were commonplace. Luther himself spoke often of the Devil, sometimes mockingly, as a regular player in the drama of his daily life and struggles.