Ugolino Visconti better known as Nino, was the Giudice of Gallura

Giudice of Gallura

The giudici of Gallura were the local rulers of the northeast of Sardinia during the Middle Ages. Theirs was the closest giudicato to Corsica.*Manfred...

 from 1275 or 1276 to his death. He was a son of Giovanni Visconti and nephew of Ugolino della Gherardesca

Ugolino della Gherardesca

Count Ugolino della Gherardesca , count of Donoratico, was an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander. He was frequently accused of treason and features prominently in Dante's Divine Comedy.-Biography:...

. He was the first husband of Beatrice, daughter of Obizzo II d'Este

Obizzo II d'Este

Obizzo II d'Este was Marquis of Ferrara and the March of Ancona.-Biography:He was a bastard, the fruit of an illegitimate relation of Rinaldo I d'Este - the only son and heir of the Margrave Azzo VII d'Este - with a Neapolitan laundress...

. His symbol was a cock

Rooster

A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...

.

Nino succeeded his father in Gallura in 1275 or 1276 and spent most of his life alternating time in Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

 and Gallura. His chaplain, a friar

Friar

A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...

 named Gomita, was caught taking bribes to release prisoners and so Nino had him hanged. Gomita was placed in the eighth circle of Hell in the Inferno and Nino was commended for the act of justice and piety.

In 1288, he began to share power with his uncle in Pisa, but the two quarreled. The elder Ugolino tried to enlist the archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini to expel Nino from the city, but the archbishop instead exiled them both and appointed his own podestà

Podestà

Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...

 and capitano del popolo

Capitano del popolo

The capitano del popolo was an administrative title used in Italy during the Middle Ages.It was created in the early 13th century when the populares, the increasing wealthy classes of merchants, professionals, craftsmen and, in maritime cities, ship-owners, who were of non-noble origin, were able...

. Then a Pisan army was sent to take control of Nino's giudicato. The betrayed giudice never set foot in his giudicato again.

Nino's daughter Joanna

Joanna of Gallura

Joanna Visconti was the titular Judge of Gallura from 1298. She was the daughter of Ugolino Visconti and Beatrice, daughter of Obizzo II d'Este...

 succeeded to the title of Gallura and married Rizzardo IV da Camino

Rizzardo IV da Camino

Rizzardo IV da Camino was an Italian nobleman and military leader, a member of the da Camino family and lord of Treviso.He was the son of Gherardo III da Camino, first lord of Treviso from the family, and Alice da Vivaro...

, Count of Ceneda and Lord of Treviso

Treviso

Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...

.

Nino was an important patron of literary culture. Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...

 was a friend, and, in the eighth canto of his Purgatorio

Purgatorio

Purgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy, following the Inferno, and preceding the Paradiso. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil...

, to his mild surprise, meets Nino in the region of Purgatory outside St. Peter's gate, where the souls of those who neglected their spiritual welfare for the sake of their country are detained for a period equal to their earthly lifetimes before beginning their purgation. Nino asks Dante to remind Joanna to pray for him, especially as his widow was remarrying into the Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

ese branch of the Visconti

House of Visconti

Visconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. There are two distinct Visconti families: The first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century who achieved prominence first in Pisa, then in Sardinia where they became rulers of Gallura...

.

Nino was also an acquaintance of several troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....

s and at least two Occitan works are addressed to him. The two are anonymous coblas

Cobla (Occitan literary term)

A cobla is a stanza in Occitan lyric poetry, the art form of the troubadours. Though not usually standalone work in itself, in many instances a cobla or two is all that survives of what was once a complete poem. Each cobla of a song was usually played to the same melody, but a few songs were...

that appear towards the end of an Italian chansonnier

Chansonnier

A chansonnier is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings of songs, hence literally "song-books," although some manuscripts are so called even though they preserve the text but not the music A chansonnier is a manuscript or...

 of 1310. One cobla, Mand qe iur e non periur was addressed al iuge de Galur, that is, Nino, and has sometimes been ascribed to Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia

Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia

Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia or Pistoja was a noted Italian poet who wrote in both the Italian and Occitan languages. He is thus sometimes described as a troubadour. A native of Pistoia—he was a major cultural figure of the Duecento there—his sonnets have been praised for their...

. The cobla which appears immediately after it in the chansonnier is also addressed to Nino, but has not been assigned by any scholar to Paolo. Terramagnino da Pisa

Terramagnino da Pisa

Terramagnino da Pisa was a Pisan author in Italian and Occitan of the second half of the 13th century. In Italian he wrote lyric poetry and in Occitan he penned the famous Doctrina de cort, basically a condensed form of the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal...

, a native of Pisa's peninsular territories, was frequently present in Gallura, where he probably spent most of his adult life. His Doctrina de Cort was addressed to Nino, at whose court it may have been written. Another Occitan poet with whom Nino had contact was Luchetto Gattilusio

Luchetto Gattilusio

Luchetto Gattilusio was a Genoese statesman, diplomat, and man of letters. As a Guelph he played an important role in wider Lombard politics and as a troubadour in the Occitan language he composed three poems descriptive of his times.-Poetry:...

, who acquired interests in property in Sardinia and appeared in several documents pertaining to Nino's rule.