NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               DATE: 09/01/06 CONTACT: LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATIONS ASST., (413) 545-0162 The UMass Amherst Libraries Hosts “Renaissance at UMass Amherst” 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 from September 1 to October 14.  To mark the exhibit’s opening, Professor Arthur F. Kinney, Director of the Renaissance Center will give a talk in the Learning Commons on September 14 at 3:00 p.m.  A reception will follow the talk. 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.  For more information, contact Jim Kelly at 545-3981 or jrkelly@library.umass.edu.  For more information about the Renaissance Center, see http://www.umass.edu/renaissance/index.html.