Joanna of Gallura
Joanna Visconti | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Judge/Queen of Gallura | |||||
Reign | 1296-1308 (de facto) 1308-1339 (titular) | ||||
Predecessor | Nino | ||||
Born | 1291 Gallura, Sardinia | ||||
Died | August 1339 Florence | (aged 47–48)||||
Spouse | Rizzardo IV da Camino, Lord of Treviso | ||||
| |||||
House | Visconti (Sardinia branch) | ||||
Father | Nino, King of Gallura | ||||
Mother | Beatrice d'Este |
Joanna of Gallura (..., c. 1291 – Florence, 1339), also known as Giovanna Visconti, was the last titular Judge (giudicessa) of Gallura. Joanna claimed her rights in Sardinia to no avail and eventually sold them to her relatives, the Visconti of Milan, who later sold them to the Crown of Aragon. She is mentioned passingly by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy. Her father, a friend of Dante's, but consigned to Purgatory with the other negligent rulers, asks her to be reminded of him.
Biography
Early life
The
Joanna was the daughter of Ugolino (also known as Nino) and Beatrice, daughter of Obizzo II d'Este. Upon Nino's death in 1296, Joanna became the last Judge of Gallura.[1] She succeeded her father when she was a baby, though her succession was purely nominal. Not long after her father's death, the Republic of Pisa, affiliated with the Ghibellines, took most of her inheritance.[2] Nino had been a notable Guelph leader who had served as podestà in Pisa until his exile in 1288, during which he aligned with known Pisan enemies Florence and Lucca and led a campaign against Pisa.[3]
In 1296, Pope Boniface VIII assigned Joanna as a ward to Volterra, where she and her mother would live for a few years. In that time, Beatrice became engaged to a son of Alberto Scotto, lord of Piacenza. Galeazzo I Visconti of Milan, desperate for an alliance with the Este family, had been able to circumvent the engagement and instead married Beatrice in 1300. This marriage outraged the Torriani family. With the help of Scotto, they drove the Visconti out of Milan. Galeazzo would then live in Tuscany until his death, but Beatrice was able to eventually return to Milan.[4]
Marriage
Though Pisa had taken most of her inheritance, Joanna remained in possession of great political power because of her title as Judge of Gallura and her parents' noble lineages. In adolescence, her political position and her beauty drew many suitors whose families sought power in Sardinia.
Joanna's first suitor was the son of the
Despite their desperate clamor for Joanna, none of the above noblemen married her. In 1308, Joanna married
Later years
From 1323 until her death in 1339, Joanna lived in Florence, where the Guelphs provided her with a subsidy in honor of her father's contributions to the party.[5]
In Dante's Divine Comedy
Joanna is mentioned in Canto VIII of Dante's
when you are far from these wide waters,
ask my Giovanna to direct her prayers for me
to where the innocent are heard.
I think her mother has not loved me
since she stopped wearing her white wimple,
which, in her coming misery, she may long for.
There is an easy lesson in her conduct:
how short a time the fire of love endures in woman
if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it.
The viper that leads the Milanese afield
will hardly ornament her tomb as handsomely
as the cock of Gallura would have done.— Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio 8.70-81
Sordello, who had led Dante and Virgil to this valley, instructs them to look up. They watch the scene, which is so familiar to the souls on this terrace, as the snake slides sensually through the grass. Upon hearing the flapping of the angels' wings, the snake slithers away fearfully.[8]
Interpretations
Quinones argues that this canto, through the analogy of Beatrice as
Diaz writes on Dante's portrayal of Beatrice: he has Nino identify her only by the men she has been with, thus emphasizing the perceived immorality of a woman marrying again. The viper to which Nino alludes is the symbol for the Visconti family of Milan and the cock is the symbol for Nino's own Visconti family of Pisa and Sardinia. Nino asserts that the viper will "hardly ornament [Beatrice's] tomb as handsomely as the cock," as if Beatrice were only a body to be decorated. Diaz indicates that in this scene, Beatrice's remarriage is framed as a sign of her uncontrollable lust and apathy towards Nino, even though the marriage was politically motivated and it had already been four years after Nino's death.[10]
References
- ^ Salavert y Roca, Vicente (1956). Cerdeña y la expansión mediterránea de la Corona de Aragón, 1297-1314. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Escuela de Estudios Medievales. p. 351.
- OCLC 680038637.
- OCLC 680038637.
- ^ Toynbee, Paget (1898). A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. unknown library. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. p. 73.
- ^ a b c di Renato Piattoli. "Visconti, Giovanna in "Enciclopedia Dantesca"". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ Salavert y Roca, Vicente (1956). Cerdeña y la expansión mediterránea de la Corona de Aragón, 1297-1314. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Escuela de Estudios Medievales. p. 354.
- ^ a b Toynbee, Paget (1898). A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. unknown library. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. p. 113.
- ^ Alighieri, Dante (2004). Purgatorio. Translated by Hollander, Jean; Hollander, Robert. New York: Anchor.
- ^ JSTOR 44803616– via JSTOR.
- OCLC 1241673090.