In his recent volume, Law and culture, Alessandro Albisetti examines some connections between law and culture in art, literature and history. After the book review, particular attention is paid to a well-known essay by Professor Albisetti, about Italo Svevo and his understanding of canon law as something "so far from life". The contribution ends arguing the hypothesis that Svevo could have borrowed these words from an essay by Andrea Galante, late Professor of Canon Law at the Universities of Innsbruck and Bologna.