In the West, where Dashkova met with kings, queens, and even the Pope, she promoted Catherine as an enlightened ruler. She also sought out the radical thinkers or “philosophes” of her time. In Paris, for instance, she debated serfdom with Denis Diderot, editor of the great Encyclopedia. And she planned an ambitious curriculum for her son at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, a major center of Enlightenment thought.
|
