In Baldesar Castiglione's The Courtier the clever circle of courtiers presents a vision of what a courtier should be. In addition, they discuss the question of what a court lady should be. Though this discussion of women takes up most of Book Three, the strategies that the men employ on the subject of women are not limited to that one conversation. Women are mentioned in various ways throughout the book. The remarks of Gaspare Pallavicino, noted for his disparagement of women, are the most obviously negative. But the overt discussion of women's qualities is not the only context in which the courtiers' ideas about women become apparent. Throughout the book there are also casual mentions of women as a group or of individual women. The nature of these passing remarks, the behavior of the women present at the conversations, and the general absence of women from most contexts, signify as much about them as do the conversation in Book Three and Pietro Bembo's concluding remarks on spiritual love. Even when they are present in the book, women are absent. It may be a fact that women such as the Duchess and Emilia Pia would not have liked to take a very active part in these conversations. But their withdrawal says a great deal about how they are viewed and how they view themselves. Ideals are the central theme of The Courtier -- what does the ideal courtier do? In contrast, the role of the ideal court lady is discussed (both by the pro-women and anti-women speakers) in terms of what she should not do. The ideal for a woman is presented as a collection of negatives that produce an overall absence.
The absence of women begins with the account of the setting and the people who take part in the conversation. They all meet in the presence of the Duchess and perform their games on her orders. She is the patron of their games and they lavishly praise her great beauty and virtue and always defer to her wishes. But all this is a for...