ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Samuel Taylor Coleridge's growing enthusiasm for cosmopolitan intellectualism from 1794 onwards resulted in the development of a plan to study abroad. Gottingen became Coleridge's German university of choice because the contemporary goals of his German tour could only be realised there. In September 1798, Coleridge, the Wordsworths, and John Chester departed England, envisioning their German tour as educational travel to collect knowledge for dissemination and translation upon their return to England. The lampooning of the University of Gottingen in The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner shows the contemporary currency of its fame, or infamy. In reading Gottingen material in Thomas Beddoes's library, Coleridge must also have become aware of the reputation of the library at Gottingen as among the best on the continent. The cosmopolitanism intellectualism of Gottingen was a crucial element in Coleridge's fusing of his literary studies and philosophical pursuits with the historical-critical methodology of the Gottingen School.
