Gallura

Description

In the twenty-second canto of the Inferno, among the barrators immersed in boiling pitch, Dante introduces Friar Gomita, indicating him as "that of Gallura, vessel of every fraud." From the authorized notes to Canto XXII we learn that Friar Gomita was a Sardinian from the region of Gallura, who served as vicar of the Pisan judge Nino Visconti during the Pisan government of the judicature. The notes also specify that Gallura was one of the four judicatures—the north-eastern one—into which the Pisans divided Sardinia after conquering it from the Saracens in 1117, alongside Arborea, Logudoro, and Callari (or Cagliari). The judicature of Gallura is also mentioned in the notes to Canto VIII, where it is recalled that the Pisan Ugolino Visconti, son of Giovanni and of a daughter of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, was lord of that judicature and was therefore called "the judge of Gallura."