'Noli me tangere', historiated initial on a leaf from a Missal, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1410]

single leaf, 320x220mm, vellum, with an initial 'G' depicting Mary Magdalene kneeling before the Resurrected Christ and a full border for the mass for her feast-day (22 July), 2 columns, 30 lines, 237x155mm, original red ink foliation 'CCxxvij', dirty and worn overall, and with a repair to the extreme lower margin, but still an appealing leaf, framed (before 1953) with a label of the Rosenbach Galleries, Philadelphia

From the 'Collection of Thos. F. Richardson, Boston' (rectangular ink-stamp on verso); his collection was on deposit at the Library of Congress in the early 20th century, and was bought in 1918-19 by JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS (1860-1932) of Philadelphia. It belonged to the descendants of Lewis’s widow, so she must have retained it when she gave the rest of his collection of western manuscripts to the Free Library, Philadelphia, where they remain. It is from what must have been a very impressive Missal, perhaps commissioned by an aristocratic patron for use in one of the more important churches of early 15th-century Paris.