RARE Shakespeare treasures will be on public display for the first time in Leeds in September.

A new exhibition celebrating the legacy of William Shakespeare will feature items from the University of Leeds’s Special Collections.

Poet Ian McMillan officially opens For All Time: Shakespeare In Yorkshire on Tuesday, September 6 at the university’s new Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery.

This will include a rare set of Shakespeare’s Folios – the earliest collections of the world-famous playwright’s work.

The exhibition also looks at how Shakespeare dramatised Yorkshire history and explores how today’s theatre directors are still using his work to ask questions about regional identity.

Marking the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, the display brings together the extraordinary material collected by Leeds University Library’s greatest benefactor, Lord Brotherton of Wakefield.

Other artefacts on display include A Yorkshire Tragedie, which tells a gruesome tale of a murder that took place in Calverley, near Leeds. This book had Shakespeare’s name on the title page but was in fact by another writer.

Co-curator Kit Heyam said: “As a northern lad who loves Shakespeare, I was thrilled to be able to dig deep into his relationship with Yorkshire when curating this exhibition.

“So many of Shakespeare’s most dramatic stories are stories of Yorkshire, and our county’s actors and theatres have a longstanding love affair with his plays. Special Collections has such an amazing collection of books and archive material which really brings this hidden relationship to light.”

The Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery is located beneath the iconic Parkinson tower on Woodhouse Lane in Leeds.. It is open from Tuesdays to Saturdays 10am to 5pm and Mondays from 1pm to 5pm. Admission is free. Visit library.leeds.ac.uk/treasures for further information.