AMHERST, MA.- The UMass Amherst Libraries present “Renaissance at UMass Amherst” an exhibit of rare books, manuscript leaves, and illustrations from the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies on the Lower Level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library through October 14. Along with other, more contemporary items, the exhibit will display the breadth of material represented in the Center’s extensive library.

Since 1998, the UMass Renaissance Center has been internationally recognized as a major resource for rare books and modern commentaries on the world between 1400 and 1700--the age of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Milton, Ariosto, Rabelais, Machiavelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. The Center has one of the largest collections of rare books in the Northeast which are available to scholars, students, and the public for research.

The Center is committed to preserving the cultural, historical, and literary legacy of the Renaissance and making it available to today’s students, scholars, and the community at large. The Center offers credit and non-credit courses, public lectures, seminars, and theatrical events, to bring an understanding of and appreciation for Early Modern Europe to a twenty-first century audience.