Abstract
Stendhal the “cosmopolitan” chose to call himself a Milanese: how to reconcile this cosmopolitanism inherited from the Enlightenment with the new demands of the “patriotism” born of the Revolution and Empire, and the changing geography of the mind (M. Crepon)? The importance attached to languages in general, and to the mother tongue in particular, in the European Romantic context encouraged Stendhal to be a “linguist in Milan”. But his infatuation with the Milanese language was not enough to define a sense of belonging, a “home away from home” (B. Cassin), while the French Revolution and the French language remained his reference point.