Between 14 and 19 July 2019, Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI, the chairholder of the European Civilization Chair at Natolin, participated in the Quadrennial International Congress on the Enlightenment, held under the auspices of the International Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies. This time the Congress was organized by the British Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies and the University of Edinburgh.
The overarching theme was ‘Enlightenment Identities’. About 1500 scholars from diverse disciplines and continents participated in the congress, and almost 500 panels were held, necessitating about thirty parallel sessions at a time. Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI participated in a double panel on ‘The Monarch as Author’. The subject of his paper was ‘Stanisław August Poniatowski: The Monarch as Persuader’. He explained the various ways in which the last king of Poland, deprived of the military means to enforce his will, sought openly or anonymously to persuade others of his case – whether in politics or the arts.