mality that arranges the women's absence, establishing the fact that they enable the conversation but disable their own participation as well.
At the beginning Castiglione mentions that the people sit in a circle, alternating between men and women. But, he adds, there very often are not enough women to complete this pattern. Other than the duchess, who has very little to say, Emilia Pia, her "deputy" in charge of refereeing the games, is the only woman who speaks very much and even she makes only a single substantial contribution to the conversation. Often, when she does speak, Emilia reflects common attitudes about women -- thus, she cannot understand the elevated conversation about "matter and form" and demands that the men speak "in a way that you can be understood" (221). Later Emilia conforms to the stereotype of a pious Church-driven woman when Giuliano de' Medici is talking about "evil" friars and she says that she considers it "a grave sin to listen to you, , and so as not to hear I shall go elsewhere" (225). She directs him to rein himself in because, her remarks imply, she knows he is wrong but she cannot defend what she believes is right and will simply have to absent herself rather than speaking up. In supposedly directing the conversation, however, the duchess and Emilia are important -- not because of what they say, but because they sanction the whole arrangement in which men's ideal of male virtue is discussed by men and men's ideal of female behavior is also discussed by men.
The duchess' presence certifies that everything is being conducted with proper decorum and this applies not just to the absence of crude language or inappropriate subjects, but to the absence of women from the conversation. The duchess declines to participate, Emilia imitates her and then the duchess engages in one of her very few acts of will. Usually when she speaks in the book it is to redirect or encourage the conversation. But ...