ABSTRACT
An important initial consideration is that the inclusion of women speakers in a dialogue like the Cortegiano in itself represents a striking departure from classical and humanistic practice. In interpreting the silence, however, certain wariness is necessary if anachronistic readings are to be avoided. In particular, it would seem a helpful exercise, in this connection, to compare Castiglione's practice with that of other Cinquecento writers of dialogue. The general absence in women of the kind of erudition that would lend verisimilitude to an intellectual protagonism on their part is not the only reason why such protagonism is so rare in quasi-documentary dialogue. To reach any valid conclusions about the unspoken conversational etiquette that regulated sex-roles in dialogue, it would be necessary to undertake a detailed comparative analysis of all dialogues containing women speakers in both their socio-historical and literary contexts.
