Barisone's policies included opposition to the Republic of Pisa and support of monastic immigration from mainland Italy.

[b] On hearing of the death of the judge of Logudoro around 1060, Barisone gave Arborea to his nephew (or son) Marianus and went to Porto Torres to receive the vacant judgeship.

In 1063, Barisone gave a gift of a large territory and two churches,[c] including the Byzantine church of Nostra Segnora de Mesumundu and that of Sant'Elia di Montesanto, to the abbey of Montecassino and asked the abbot Desiderius of Benevento to send twelve monks[1] to establish the Benedictine rule on the island of Sardinia.

However, determined to maintain a religious monopoly in Sardinia, the Pisan archdiocese attacked the monks at sea off the Giglio Island, where four died.

While Pope Alexander II excommunicated the Pisans for the assault, only the intervention of Godfrey the Bearded, margrave of Tuscany, secured satisfaction to the monastery and to Barisone.