Bonturo Dati was an early 14th century leader of the liberals in Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

. He expelled his political enemies in 1308, gaining control of the government of the city. Boasting that he would put an end to barratry

Barratry

Barratry is the name of four legal concepts, three in criminal and civil law, and one in admiralty law.* Barratry, in criminal and civil law, is the act or practice of bringing repeated legal actions solely to harass...

, ironically he became famous for his venality

Venality

Venality is a vice associated with being bribeable or of selling one's services or power, especially when one should act justly instead. In its most recognizable form, dishonesty, venality causes people to lie and steal for their personal advantage, and is related to bribery and nepotism, among...

. According to Benvenuto

Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola

Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola, or simply and perhaps more accurately Benvenuto da Imola was an Italian scholar and historian, a lecturer at Bologna. He is now best known for his commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy.-Life:...

, he controlled the entire municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

, through bribes he could appoint and dismiss anyone he wanted.

Dati is famous for provoking a war with 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...

 in 1313, that is commemorated in Faida di Comune by Giosuè Carducci

Giosuè Carducci

Giosuè Alessandro Michele Carducci was an Italian poet and teacher. He was very influential and was regarded as the official national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.-Biography:...

. He is featured in 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 ...

's Divine Comedy, where he is punished in Circle Eight, Bolgia Five.