Early modern diplomacy was characterized by the increasing professionalism of embassy staff and administrative routines - so the common belief. In particular, the secretaries previously working as the ambassador's domestics were gradually replaced by state-appointed embassy secretaries. However, this process has not yet been empirically investigated, as has the social status and the specific range of tasks of the actors concerned. The contributions collected in the volume begin here by systematically looking at the role of embassy secretaries in early modern diplomacy for the first time. The spectrum ranges from the 16th to the early 19th century, from England and France to Austria and Prussia to the Ottoman Empire.