The unpublished novel Jacopo Foscari. Storia Veneta del Secolo XV (1838) by the Pisan writer, lawyer and politician Tommaso Paoli is presented for the first time. The novel is based on the story of the trial and conviction of the son of the sixty-fifth doge of Venice. It is an episode already dealt with by Byron in the tragedy The two Foscari but which Paoli proposes in a new guise starting from the choice of the narrative form.

An activist of two big traditions. Skaryna and Ukraine Scholarly research of Francysk Skaryna legacy has been initiated by J.V. Bacmejster in 1776 and V.S. Sopikow in 1813. Further research conducted in the XX century by Alexander Bilecki, Pavel Popov, Yaroslav Isayevich, U. Anichenko and contemporary studies of Halyna Kovalchuk, Alexandr Nauvov, Mariola Walczak-Mikolajczak and others demonstrate how important were Skaryna’s activities on the border of two big traditions. In this context it’s worth to focus on a topic “Skaryna and Ukraine” in all its depth: biographical, publishing, polygraphic, academic, bibliographical. Ukrainian episode in Skaryna’s life and his birth town of Polotsk is related to the cult of Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk who established the fi rst female monastery and is considered a patron of female monasticism of Rus. Polygraphic context of Skaryna’s activities is tied to Western Europe. Upon the receipt of a doctorate in medicine at the University of Padua he visited Venice – one of the most prominent centers of printing and publishing including Slavic, Greek and Hebrew texts where he also mastered modern printing techniques. In Prague Skaryna used two color printing technique to publish The Song of Songs and print the title page of Biblia Ruska. In Vilnius two color printing technique has been applied to print fi ve chapters of the Bible and just one title page of Psalter.

With the Act on the Polish Card Poland followed the pattern of some European states (mostly Central and Eastern European ones) of enacting specific domestic legislation conferring special treatment and benefits to persons who are recognized as its kin-minorities. The most important analysis of this phenomenon from the perspective of international law was the 2001 Venice Commission’s report entitled “Report on the Protection of National Minorities by their Kin-State.” The Polish legislation was adopted in 2007, so for obvious reasons it was not considered by the Venice Commission. However, a rather unexpected and unusual examination of the Polish kin-state legislation from the perspective of international law came from Belarus. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Belarus (CCRB) conducted a comprehensive examination of the Act on the Polish Card in 2011. The main aim of this article is to present and comment on the reasoning of the CCRB. Beginning with the broader context, this article starts with a presentation of the origins and a short description of the Act on the Polish Card, followed by a discussion of why the Polish Card and other kin-state legislation instruments are topics of concern in international law. The main part of the article is devoted to the presentation and assessment of the 2011 CCRB decision on the Act on the Polish Card. The author’s assessment confirms at least some of the concerns put forward by the CCRB, i.e., that both the Act on the Polish Card and the practice based on it contradict some norms and principles of international law, namely the principle of territorial sovereignty, the norms of consular law, and several bilateral treaties in force between these two states. Bearing in mind that despite those concerns more than a quarter-million Polish Cards (also sometimes called Pole’s Cards) have been issued so far by the Polish authorities, the article ends with a discussion of why such a prolonged nonconformity with international law is possible.