For information on the phantom island of the same name, see Podesta (island).

Podestà is the name given to a high official in many Italian cities, during the later middle ages.

The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power. Podestàs, or rectors, were first appointed by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa when in about 1158 he began to assert the rights that his Imperial position gave him over the cities of northern Italy. The business of the podestà was to enforce these rights. From the first, their activities were very unpopular, and their often arbitrary behaviour was a factor in bringing about the formation of the Lombard League and the uprising against Frederick in 1167.

Although the emperor's experiment was short-lived, the podestàs soon became important and common in northern Italy, making their appearance in most communes around the year 1200, with an essential difference. These officials were now appointed by the citizens or by the citizens' representatives. The podestàs exercised the supreme power in the city, both in peace and war, and in foreign and domestic matters alike; but their term of office lasted only about a year.

In order to avoid the intense strife so common in Italian civic life, it soon became the custom to hire a stranger to fill this position. A similarity could be drawn to modern CEOs. Venetians were in special demand for this purpose during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This was probably due to their lesser concern (at the time) than other Italians in the affairs of the mainland. Afterwards, in a few cases, the term of office was extended to cover a period of years, or even a lifetime. They were confined in a luxury palace to keep them from being influenced by any of the local families. The architectural arrangement of the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, built starting in 1297, evokes the uneasy relation of the commune with the podestà, who in Siena's case was a disinterested nobleman at the head of the judiciary. It provided a self-contained lodging round its own interior court for the podestà, separate but housed within the Palazzo Pubblico where the councillors and their committee of nine habitually met (Woo).

During the later part of the twelfth and the whole of the thirteenth century most Italian cities were governed by a podestà. Concerning Rome, with a history of civic violence, Gregorovius says that "in 1205 the pope [Innocent III] changed the form of the civic government; the executive power lying henceforward in the hand of a single senator or podest, who, directly or indirectly, was appointed by the pope." In Florence after 1180, the chief authority was transferred from the consuls to the podest, and Milan and other cities were also ruled by these officials. There were, moreover, podests in some of the cities of Provence.

Gradually the podests became more despotic and more corrupt: the sale of public offices at Ferrara was a matter of public record, as Jakob Burckhardt noted: "At the new year 1502 the majority of the officials bought their places at prezzi salati ("pungent prices"); public servants of the most various kinds, custom-house officers, bailiffs (massari), notaries, podesta, judges, and even governors of provincial towns are quoted by name." Sometimes a special official was appointed to hear complaints against them. In the thirteenth century in Florence, in Orvieto (1251) and some other cities a capitano del popolo (literally, "captain of the people") was chosen to look after the interests of the lower classes. (To this day, the heads of government of the little independent republic of San Marino are still called "Capitani".) In other ways the power of the podests was reduced—they were confined more and more to judicial functions until they disappeared early in the sixteenth century.

The officials sent by the Italian republics to administer the affairs of dependent cities were also sometimes called podests. Into the 20th century the cities of Trento and Trieste gave the name of podest to their chief magistrate. Fascism tried to revive the term by calling the lord mayors of Italian cities, podestà—a senate elected position. This use was abandoned after World War II and today Italian mayors are again called sindaco.

The example of Italy in the matter of podests was sometimes followed by cities and republics in northern Europe in the middle ages, notably by such as had trade relations with Italy. The officers elected sometimes bore the title of podesta or podestat. Thus in East Friesland there were podests identical in name and functions with those of the Italian republics; sometimes each province had one, sometimes the federal diet elected a podest-general for the whole country, the term of office being for a limited period or for life¹.

See also Gonfaloniere. Compare Doges of Genoa and Doges of Venice.

References

¹ J.L. Motley, Dutch Republic, i. 44, ed. 1903.

External link

• Janet Hongyan Woo, "Tension in Siena : Site Selection and Room Arrangement of Piazza Pubblico" (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~hwu/aessaysiena.htm)

Further reading

• Burckhardt, Jakob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy: "The State as a Work of Art" (http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/burckhardt01.htm), trans. 1878
• A.M.H.J. Stokvis, Manuel d'histoire, de généalogie et de chronologie de tous les états du globe depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours; vol. iii
• William Francis Thomas Butler, Lombard Communes: A History of the Republics of North Italy (1982)de:Podestà

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