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{{Short description|Medieval Italian equivalent to mayor in some cities}}
{{For-multi|people with the surname|Podesta (surname)|the phantom island|Podesta (island)|other uses|Podesta (disambiguation)}}
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[[File:Palazzo del Podestà old.jpg|thumb|235px|The Palace of the {{Lang|it|Podestà|italic=no}} in [[Florence]], now the [[Bargello]] museum]]
'''{{lang|it|Podestà}}''' ({{IPA|it|podeˈsta|lang}}), also '''potestate''' or '''podesta''' in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of [[Central Italy|central]] and [[northern Italy]] during the [[Late Middle Ages]]. Sometimes, it meant the [[chief magistrate]] of a city-state, the counterpart to similar positions in other cities that went by other names, e.g. {{lang|it|rettori}} ('rectors').

In the following centuries up to 1918, the term was used to designate the head of the municipal administration, particularly in the Italian-speaking territories of the [[Austrian Empire]]. The title was taken up again during the [[Fascism|Fascist regime]] with the same meaning.

The {{lang|it|podestà}}'s office, its duration and the residence and the local jurisdiction were called {{lang|it|podesteria}}, especially during the Middle Ages, and in later centuries, more rarely during the Fascist regime.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Il Vocabolario Treccani|publisher=Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana|year=1992|language=it}}</ref>

Currently, {{lang|it|podestà}} is the title of [[mayor]]s in [[Italian language|Italian]]-speaking municipalities of [[Grisons|Graubünden]] in [[Switzerland]], but it is not the case for the [[Ticino|Canton of Ticino]], which uses the title {{lang|it|sindaco}} (the same currently in use throughout Italy).

==Etymology==
The term derives from the [[Latin]] word {{lang|la|[[potestas]]}} ('power'). There is a similar derivation for the Arabic term {{lang|ar|سلطان}} {{Transliteration|ar|[[sultan|sulṭān]]}}, originally meaning 'power' or 'authority'; it [[Metonymy|eventually became the title]] of the person holding power.<ref>There is an uncharacteristically early use of {{lang|it|potestas}} in this sense, in [[Juvenal]], ''Satire'' X, 99-101, an image of a magistrate in a little town, judging of weights and measures.</ref>

==History==
The first documented usage of {{lang|it|podestà}} was in [[Bologna]] in 1151, when it was applied to Guido di Ranieri di Sasso of Canossa, brought in from Faenza to be {{lang|it|rettore e podestà}}, noted in numerous documents.<ref>Savioli, ''Annali Bolognesi'' I, 225–231, noted by Born 1927:864 note 80.</ref> [[Leandro Alberti|Leander Albertus]] gives the particulars:

{{blockquote|The citizens, seeing that there often arose among them quarrels and altercations, whether from favoritism or friendship, from envy or hatred that one had against another, by which their republic suffered great harm, loss and detriment; therefore, they decided, after much deliberation, to provide against these disorders. And thus they began to create a man of foreign birth their chief magistrate, giving him every power, authority and jurisdiction over the city, as well over criminal as over civil causes, and in times of war as well as in times of peace, calling him [[praetor]] as being above the others, or {{Lang|it|podestà}}, as having every authority and power over the city.<ref>Edith E. C. James, ''Bologna, Its History, Antiquities, and Art'' (London) 1909: 99f.</ref>}}

[[File:Lodewijk Toeput - Portrait of a Podestà.jpg|thumb|left|''Portrait of a {{Lang|it|Podestà}}'' by [[Lodewijk Toeput]]]]
{{lang|it|Podestà}} were first more widely appointed by the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick Barbarossa]] when he began to assert the rights that his Imperial position gave him over the cities of northern Italy; at the [[Diet of Roncaglia|second imperial diet at Roncaglia]], November 1158, Frederick appointed in several major cities imperial {{lang|it|podestà}} "as if having imperial power in that place".<ref>{{langx|la|quasi habens potestatem imperialis in hac parte.}}</ref> The elected consuls, which Frederick had claimed the right to ratify, began to designate directly. The business of the {{lang|it|podestà}} was to enforce imperial rights. From the start, this was 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 {{lang|it|podestà}} 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, rather like the older [[consul]]s (but not collegial). The {{lang|it|podestà}} 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.<ref>[[Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange|Du Cange]], {{lang|la|Glossarium mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis}}, vol 6, gives this sense and explores many ramifications of {{lang|la|potestas}} in [[Late Latin]] and [[feudal]] usage.</ref>

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. [[Venice|Venetians]] were in special demand for this purpose during the 12th and 13th 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 {{lang|it|italic=no|[[Palazzo Pubblico]]}} at [[Siena]], built starting in 1297, evokes the uneasy relation of the commune with the {{lang|it|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 {{lang|it|podestà}}, separate but housed within the Palazzo Pubblico where the councillors and their committee of nine habitually met.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

During the later part of the twelfth and the whole of the thirteenth century, most Italian cities were governed by a {{lang|it|podestà}}. Concerning [[Rome]], with a history of civic violence, [[Ferdinand Gregorovius|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 {{lang|it|podestà}}, who, directly or indirectly, was appointed by the pope".{{citation needed|date=October 2018}} In [[Florence]] after 1180, the chief authority was transferred from the consuls to the {{lang|it|podestà}}, and [[Milan]] and other cities were also ruled by these officials. The [[Republic of Genoa]] elected its first {{lang|it|podestà}} in 1191, a [[Brescia]]n citizen, to quell the internal unrest that ravaged the [[Genoa|capital]] of the Republic.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Donaver|first=Federico|title=Storia di Genova|publisher=Nuova Editrice Genovese|year=2001|pages=31}}</ref> There were, moreover, {{lang|it|podestà}} in some of the cities of the adjoining [[Provence]] in southeastern France.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

An anonymous writer composed a short guide for the would-be {{lang|it|podestà}} (although it would be unseemly to appear openly to run for the office), {{lang|it|Oculus pastoralis}}, of about 1222;<ref>In full {{lang|la|Oculus pastoralis, sive libellus erudiens futurum rectorem populorum}}, "The Pastoral eye, or little book informing the future rector of the people"; the text was first printed Muratori, {{lang|la|Antiquitates Italicæ Medi Ævi}} iv 96–128, and recently {{lang|la|Oculus pastoralis. Pascens officia et continens radium dulcibus pomis suis}}, ed. Dora Franceschi, Turin 1966 ({{lang|it|italic=no|Memorie dell'Accademia delle scienze di Torino}}. Series 4 11).</ref> in six simple and brief chapters it guides the novice through the requirements of the office, the salary, the address of welcome given by the retiring {{lang|it|podestà}} to the new one, the choice of counsellors, the handling of money accounts. The fifth chapter offers some model speeches on public occasions, such as the death of prominent citizens. A final chapter touches upon making war (in a paragraph), and the training of urban officials.

In the thirteenth century in Florence, in [[Orvieto]] (1251) and some other cities, a {{lang|it|[[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 "{{lang|it|capitani}}"). In other ways the power of the {{lang|it|podestà}} was reduced&mdash;they were confined more and more to [[Judiciary|judicial]] functions until they disappeared early in the sixteenth century.{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

The officials sent by the Italian republics to administer the affairs of dependent cities were also sometimes called {{lang|it|podestà}}. Into the 20th century the cities of [[Trento]] and [[Trieste]] gave the name of {{lang|it|podestà}} to their [[chief magistrate]].{{citation needed|date=October 2018}}

===Fascist era===
The [[Italian fascism|Fascist regime]] created its own version of the {{lang|it|podestà}} figure. In February 1926, [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini's Senate]] issued a decree which abolished the autonomous powers and functions of {{lang|it|[[comune|comuni]]}} (municipalities), including elected town councils and [[mayor]]s. Instead, all {{lang|it|comuni}}, except for [[Rome]], were to be headed by a {{lang|it|podestà}}, an [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] mayor with full executive and legislative powers. He was appointed by [[royal charter]] (in practice, by the [[National Fascist Party]]) for a renewable five-year term (which could be revoked at any time with immediate effect). In Rome, a [[Mayor of Rome#List of Mayors of Rome|governor]] was appointed to head the local government. In larger communes, the {{lang|it|podestà}} was assisted by one or two {{lang|it|vice-podestà}} nominated by the [[Ministry of the Interior (Italy)|Ministry of Interior]], in addition to a board of advisors ({{lang|it|consulta municipale}})<ref name=Born1927>{{cite journal|last=Born|first=Lester K.|title=What is the Podestà?|journal=[[The American Political Science Review]]|date=November 1927|volume=21|issue=4|pages=869–870|doi=10.2307/1947600 |jstor=1947600|s2cid=147505046 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1947600 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> nominated either by the local [[Prefect#Modern sub-national administration|prefect]] or, in the major cities, by the Ministry of Interior.

The decree was in effect from 21 April 1927 until 1945,<ref name=Born1927/> when the entire system was abandoned with the return to democracy.

=={{lang|it|Podesteria}}==
Literally, this derived word means the office of a {{lang|it|podestà}} or its term, but {{lang|it|podesteria}} can also designate a district administered by a {{lang|it|podestà}} within a larger state.

In the {{lang|it|[[Domini di Terraferma]]}} that the dogal [[Republic of Venice]] gradually established in the basin of the river Po, annexing various former principalities and self-governing cities, mostly in the fifteenth century, {{lang|it|podesteria}} ({{langx|vec|podestarie}}) were one of the intermediate levels of the hierarchical administrative organization, the highest ("provincial") level being the {{lang|it|territorio}} (roughly a modern administrative region).

After the other dogal republic, [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], was in 1273 granted control of [[Beyoğlu|Pera]] and [[Galata]], commercial suburbs of [[Constantinople]], by the Byzantine emperor, it governed them jointly by a common {{Lang|it|podestà}} until 1453, when all Constantinople was conquered by the [[Ottoman Turks]].

==Outside the Italian city-states==
The example of Italy in the matter of {{lang|it|podestà}} 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 {{lang|it|podestà}} or {{lang|it|podestat}}. Thus in [[East Frisia]], there were {{lang|it|podestà}} identical in name and functions to those of the Italian republics; sometimes each province had one, and sometimes the federal diet elected a {{lang|it|podestà}}-general for the whole country, the term of office being for a limited period or for life.<ref>J.L. Motley, ''Dutch Republic'', ed. 1903, vol. i. 44.</ref>

===Frisian ''potestaat''===
{{Main|Potestaat of Friesland}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}
The concept of a local man empowered to represent the Holy Roman Emperor was also a feature of medieval [[Frisia]]. From apocryphal beginnings, important rights were granted or confirmed under the code of law known as the ''[[Lex Frisionum]]''. According to later tradition, it was [[Charlemagne]] who granted the Frisians the title of freemen and permitted them to choose their own {{lang|it|podestat}} or imperial governor from among the chieftains, to organize and lead the defense of two of the three districts of Frisia, in [[Frisia|Middle Frisia]], from the [[Flie]] to the [[Lauwers]] and in [[East Frisia]] from the Lauwers to the [[Weser]], later the Countship of [[East Frisia|Ostfriesland]].

The Italians probably became aware of the Frisian Potestaat, in Dutch "op poten staan" in English 'on legs standing', like for instance king Henry on his painting (Dutch: {{lang|it|potestaat}}; German: {{lang|it|Potestat}}; English: {{lang|it|potestate}}) during the [[Sixth Crusade]] in 1228. According to privileges that were falsely ascribed to the [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] era, the {{lang|it|potestate}} was chosen by council and he must be able to slay knights. Apocryphal historical writings mention the potestate as early as the [[Viking Age]].

The only {{lang|it|potestates}} chosen to lead [[Friesland]] between the [[Vlie]] and [[Lauwers]] were [[Juw Juwinga]] (1396) and [[Juw Dekama|Juw Dekema]] (1494), both were chosen by the [[Vetkopers and Schieringers|Schieringers]]. However, in 1399 the districts of [[Westergoa|Westergo]] and [[Eastergoa|Oostergo]] elected potestates, [[Haring Harinxma]] and [[Sjoerd Wiarda]] respectively, in the struggle against the count of Holland. The title became well known outside of Friesland only with the installation of [[Albert III, Duke of Saxony|Albrecht of Saxony]] as {{lang|it|hereditary potestate}} in 1498; the Frisians chose [[Jancko Douwama]] as their imperial [[stadtholder]] (1522).

==See also==
* ''[[Captains Regent|Capitano Reggente]]''
* ''[[Gonfaloniere]]''
* [[Podestà of Constantinople]]

==Reading==
* Brouwer, J.H., J.J. Klama, W. Kok, and M. Wiegersma, eds., [[Encyclopedie van Friesland]], (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1958) s.v. ''Potestaat van Friesland''
* ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 1911: "Frisians"
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050216214848/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~hwu/aessaysiena.htm Janet Hongyan Woo, "Tension in Siena: Site Selection and Room Arrangement of Piazza Pubblico"]
* [[Jakob Burckhardt|Burckhardt, Jakob]], ''The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy'': "The State as a Work of Art", 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
* Westermann, ''Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte'' (in German)
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Turkey.html WorldStatesmen – Turkey]
* William Francis Thomas Butler, ''Lombard Communes: A History of the Republics of North Italy'' (1982)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Legal history of Italy]]
[[Category:Medieval history of Italy]]
[[Category:Italian city-states]]
[[Category:2nd millennium in Italy]]
[[Category:Gubernatorial titles]]
[[Category:Heads of government]]
[[Category:Heads of state]]
[[Category:Heads of local government]]
[[Category:Potestaats of Friesland]]