In 1764, Casanova made his way to the court of this great Enlightenment monarch, hoping to set up a lottery. He didn’t succeed in that but he did make a good enough impression for Frederick to offer him a post as a tutor (which he turned down). In his memoirs, Casanova noted: Frederick had his good and his bad qualities, like all great men, but when every deduction on the score of his failings has been made, he still remains the noblest figure in the eighteenth century.
A pretty good BBC documentary (1 hour) on one of the most influential figures in eighteenth-century Europe – here.
‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is now freely available here.
Long form articles on Casanova’s life and times are freely available here.
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