La Persia di Carlo Goldoni .......... 69

THE PERSIA OF CARLO GOLDONI

In his Ircana trilogy (La sposa persiana, 1753; Ircana in Julfa, 1756; Ircana in Ispahan, 1757) Carlo Goldoni sets the plot in exotic Persia. In order to make the story more plausible, he refers to the book of an English traveller, Thomas Salmon and his Modern History or the Present State of all Nations: Describing Their Respective Situations, Persons, Habits, Animals and Minerals (Italian version: Lo stato presente di tutti i paesi e popoli del mondo naturale, politico e morale. Con nuove osservazioni e correzioni degli antichi e moderni viaggiatori, Venice 1731–1766), and in particular to the fifth volume of the work entitled Stato presente della Monarchia della Persia. Goldoni borrows various information from the book relating to the customs, cuisine, marriages, history, the structure of the government, and the character of people, sometimes quoting brief fragments of Salmon’s book, but despite the above, however, the image of Persia conforms to the tradition. The aim of this article is to analyse clichés and stereotypical image of Persia in the three Goldonian tragic comedies and to elucidate reasons for masking the exotic setting.