In this massive study, an abridged version of his doctoral thesis, Cornel Zwierlein investigates the origins, development and spread of the ‘discorso’ method, a radical new approach to statecraft that became increasingly influential in the course of the sixteenth century. Zwierlein locates the method's origins in the Machiavellian concept of discorrere, which is to be distinguished from traditional scholarly commentary or exegesis. For Zwierlein, the framework of the ‘discorso’ is far more important than the content of Machiavelli's writings. Machiavelli is not so much the founder of a political ideology as the creator of a new, empirically based form of political analysis that was adopted by Machiavellian and anti-Machiavellian writers alike. Part B of the study assembles evidence of the gradual diffusion of the ‘discorso’ method throughout northern Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century, first in the Florentine ‘Consulte e pratiche’ around 1500 and later in the works of such writers as Claudio Tolomei, Francesco Patrizi and Giacomo Aconcio. In part C, Zwierlein examines the media that served to popularise the method, especially the diplomatic dispatches or avvisi that became so important following the French invasion of Italy in 1494. These supported the emergence of a new, empirical mindset among rulers, notably in Savoy-Piedmont, which Zwierlein selects as a case study of the practical application of the ‘discorso’ method to the affairs of an early modern state (part D). Of all Italian territories, Savoy-Piedmont approximates most closely to the ‘nuovo stato’ envisaged by Machiavelli, as it had to be rebuilt more or less from the ground up following the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. The influence of the ‘discorso’ method on Savoy's ruler, Duke Emanuele Filiberto, is apparent in his emphasis on information-gathering and in his reorganisation of the state's financial and military resources. The method also underpinned his ‘neutral’ foreign policy and his dealings with the Reformed minority within his borders, which was accorded limited toleration after the failure of attempts to eradicate it by force. The interventionist and expansionist policies of Emanuele Filiberto's successor, Carlo Emanuele, were guided by the same empirical considerations. In the final section of the book (part E), Zwierlein considers the reception of the ‘discorso’ method in south-western Germany. Despite the region's strong cultural and economic ties to the Italian peninsula, ‘reason of state’ was slow to establish itself there, partly because it faced competing political models in the shape of Calvinist confessionalism and Reichsnormativität. The first of these had particularly strong roots in the Palatinate, the interventions of which in the French wars of religion were inspired by the Reformed notion of a transnational communio of believers. In Italy, by contrast, the dominance of the ‘discorso’ method led to a stricter separation between religious and political considerations in foreign policy. Paradoxically, however, it was the Reformed (including some Italian Protestant exiles) who were responsible for transmitting Machiavelli's works to Germany and for popularising the ‘discorso’. The result was that towards the end of the sixteenth century Calvinist writers in south-western Germany began to tone down their confessional rhetoric. In the Reformed propagandist Johann Fischart, a form of proto-nationalism is to be found, aimed at facilitating an alliance with the Lutherans. Because of the range of topics that it covers, the study is not easy to navigate, and it would certainly have benefited from a sharper focus. The author's writing style sometimes does more to obscure than to clarify his arguments, and the book includes much extraneous material that could safely be jettisoned. Zwierlein's overall conclusion – that the spread of the ‘discorso’ method and its associated media amounts to evidence of ‘Europäisierung’ during the early modern period, comparable with the globalisation of today – also seems somewhat overblown. On the other hand, one cannot help but be impressed by his command of the sources and imaginative approach, which yields important insights into the changing political culture of sixteenth-century Europe.