Noli Me Tangere

200, Lot: 407. Estimate $300. Sold for $235. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Coinage. Gregory XIII. 1572-1585. AR Testone (30mm, 9.28 g, 4h). Ancona mint. Dated 1584. Bust right, wearing stole / Christ standing facing, holding shovel, drawing away from Mary Magdalene kneeling right, extending hand to Christ; pellet between. CNI XVI 112; Muntoni 200b; Berman 1213. Near VF, toned. surfaces a little granular.

From the Luparello Collection.

The reverse illustrates a scene recorded in John 20:15-17, where Mary Magdalene, weeping at the sepulchre after finding the stone removed and Christ’s body missing, questions a figure she initially mistakes as a gardener about the body’s whereabouts. She soon recognizes this figure as Christ, who tells her “Noli me tangere” (“touch me not”) and directs her to inform others of the Resurrection.

The shovel Christ holds has two purposes; it references Mary’s misidentification of Christ in the narrative, while also typologically linking Christ to Adam, a gardener in Eden, who was often depicted holding a shovel in Medieval art.