Bonturo

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In verse 41 of Canto XXI of the Inferno, Bonturo is cited as the only one among those present not to be a barrator. The note to the verse specifies that, according to the traditional reading, Bonturo Dati is explicitly recalled by Dante as a barrator, so that the phrase "fuor che Bonturo" is to be read ironically: there would not have existed, among the barrators, a man his equal, capable of surpassing them all in wickedness. The passage is set in the scene in which the devils of the fifth bolgia, called Malebranche, seize and carry the damned, among them an old man from Lucca. The identity of Bonturo, his origin, and the qualification of barrator emerge from the commentary on the verse itself, which calls upon the tradition of the ancient interpreters and clarifies the meaning of the qualification of barrator applied to the sinners of the bolgia.