The concept of liberty has been so dissected in the last half century that one could easily believe its original vigour lost. Gatti's work puts those fears to rest. By returning to the texts of the ‘long sixteenth century’, Gatti seeks to represent the rich vitality of thought that produced the tradition of liberty inherited by the Enlightenment era, and by us today. Gatti highlights those texts often left out of a discussion of liberty, especially those addressing religious questions, demonstrating her breadth of reading and impressive familiarity with the sources. This volume is a rich treasure-trove of insights and illuminating ‘case studies’. It is in the organisation and justification of these case studies, however, that the book falls a little short. Gatti perhaps goes too far in seeking to avoid over-categorising the concept of liberty, giving her reader many striking impressions, but few concrete conclusions to take away. This, however, appears to have been her intention, as she gives her book the rather modest and nebulous aim of showing that the sixteenth century resulted in ‘a number of startling new claims for liberty’, and nothing more than this. Though Gatti's text lacks a decisive conclusion about the expressions of liberty that she recovers, Ideas of liberty in early modern Europe is certainly a fascinating read that will not fail to inform and inspire.