«È il Re Lear, in pietra». Jens Baggesen davanti alla Cattedrale di Nostra Signora di Strasburgo

In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the Danish-German pre-romantic writer Jens Baggesen left Denmark for a trip to Germany, France, and Switzerland, which, poetically transfigured, would constitute the theme of Labyrinten eller Reise giennem Tydskland, Schweitz og Frankerig (1792-93), a book that promotes subjectivity, encouraging its readers to undertake, rather than read, that same journey. The long description of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame of Strasbourg, a place already celebrated by Goethe, must be traced back to this intent. This article investigates the rhetorics of Baggesen’s emotional response to the cathedral, with emphasis on the author-reader interaction.