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Podestà (Italian:[podeˈsta]), alsopotestate orpodesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities ofcentral andnorthern Italy during theLate Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant thechief magistrate of a city-state, the counterpart to similar positions in other cities that went by other names, e.g.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 theAustrian Empire. The title was taken up again during theFascist regime with the same meaning.
Thepodestà's office, its duration and the residence and the local jurisdiction were calledpodesteria, especially during the Middle Ages, and in later centuries, more rarely during the Fascist regime.[1]
Currently,podestà is the title ofmayors inItalian-speaking municipalities ofGraubünden inSwitzerland, but it is not the case for theCanton of Ticino, which uses the titlesindaco (the same currently in use throughout Italy).
The term derives from theLatin wordpotestas ('power'). There is a similar derivation for the Arabic termسلطانsulṭān, originally meaning 'power' or 'authority'; iteventually became the title of the person holding power.[2]
The first documented usage ofpodestà was inBologna in 1151, when it was applied to Guido di Ranieri di Sasso of Canossa, brought in from Faenza to berettore e podestà, noted in numerous documents.[3]Leander Albertus gives the particulars:
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 himpraetor as being above the others, orpodestà, as having every authority and power over the city.[4]
Podestà were first more widely appointed by theHoly Roman EmperorFrederick Barbarossa when he began to assert the rights that his Imperial position gave him over the cities of northern Italy; at thesecond imperial diet at Roncaglia, November 1158, Frederick appointed in several major cities imperialpodestà "as if having imperial power in that place".[5] The elected consuls, which Frederick had claimed the right to ratify, began to designate directly. The business of thepodestà 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 theLombard League and the uprising against Frederick in 1167.
Although the Emperor's experiment was short-lived, thepodestà 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 olderconsuls (but not collegial). Thepodestà 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.[6]
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.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 thePalazzo Pubblico atSiena, built starting in 1297, evokes the uneasy relation of the commune with thepodestà, 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 thepodestà, separate but housed within the Palazzo Pubblico where the councillors and their committee of nine habitually met.[citation needed]
During the later part of the twelfth and the whole of the thirteenth century, most Italian cities were governed by apodestà. ConcerningRome, with a history of civic violence,Gregorovius says that "in 1205 thePope Innocent III changed the form of the civic government; the executive power lying henceforward in the hand of a single senator orpodestà, who, directly or indirectly, was appointed by the pope".[citation needed] InFlorence after 1180, the chief authority was transferred from the consuls to thepodestà, andMilan and other cities were also ruled by these officials. TheRepublic of Genoa elected its firstpodestà in 1191, aBrescian citizen, to quell the internal unrest that ravaged thecapital of the Republic.[7] There were, moreover,podestà in some of the cities of the adjoiningProvence in southeastern France.[citation needed]
An anonymous writer composed a short guide for the would-bepodestà (although it would be unseemly to appear openly to run for the office),Oculus pastoralis, of about 1222;[8] 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 retiringpodestà 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, inOrvieto (1251) and some other cities, acapitano del popolo (lit. '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 ofSan Marino are still called "capitani"). In other ways the power of thepodestà was reduced—they were confined more and more tojudicial functions until they disappeared early in the sixteenth century.[citation needed]
The officials sent by the Italian republics to administer the affairs of dependent cities were also sometimes calledpodestà. Into the 20th century the cities ofTrento andTrieste gave the name ofpodestà to theirchief magistrate.[citation needed]
TheFascist regime created its own version of thepodestà figure. In February 1926,Mussolini's Senate issued a decree which abolished the autonomous powers and functions ofcomuni (municipalities), including elected town councils andmayors. Instead, allcomuni, except forRome, were to be headed by apodestà, anauthoritarian mayor with full executive and legislative powers. He was appointed byroyal charter (in practice, by theNational Fascist Party) for a renewable five-year term (which could be revoked at any time with immediate effect). In Rome, agovernor was appointed to head the local government. In larger communes, thepodestà was assisted by one or twovice-podestà nominated by theMinistry of Interior, in addition to a board of advisors (consulta municipale)[9] nominated either by the localprefect or, in the major cities, by the Ministry of Interior.
The decree was in effect from 21 April 1927 until 1945,[9] when the entire system was abandoned with the return to democracy.
Literally, this derived word means the office of apodestà or its term, butpodesteria can also designate a district administered by apodestà within a larger state.
In theDomini di Terraferma that the dogalRepublic of Venice gradually established in the basin of the river Po, annexing various former principalities and self-governing cities, mostly in the fifteenth century,podesteria (Venetian:podestarie) were one of the intermediate levels of the hierarchical administrative organization, the highest ("provincial") level being theterritorio (roughly a modern administrative region).
After the other dogal republic,Genoa, was in 1273 granted control ofPera andGalata, commercial suburbs ofConstantinople, by the Byzantine emperor, it governed them jointly by a commonpodestà until 1453, when all Constantinople was conquered by theOttoman Turks.
The example of Italy in the matter ofpodestà was sometimes followed by cities and republics inNorthern Europe in the Middle Ages, notably by such as had trade relations with Italy. The officers elected sometimes bore the title ofpodestà orpodestat. Thus inEast Frisia, there werepodestà identical in name and functions to those of the Italian republics; sometimes each province had one, and sometimes the federal diet elected apodestà-general for the whole country, the term of office being for a limited period or for life.[10]
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The concept of a local man empowered to represent the Holy Roman Emperor was also a feature of medievalFrisia. From apocryphal beginnings, important rights were granted or confirmed under the code of law known as theLex Frisionum. According to later tradition, it wasCharlemagne who granted the Frisians the title of freemen and permitted them to choose their ownpodestat or imperial governor from among the chieftains, to organize and lead the defense of two of the three districts of Frisia, inMiddle Frisia, from theFlie to theLauwers and inEast Frisia from the Lauwers to theWeser, later the Countship ofOstfriesland.
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:potestaat; German:Potestat; English:potestate) during theSixth Crusade in 1228. According to privileges that were falsely ascribed to theCarolingian era, thepotestate was chosen by council and he must be able to slay knights. Apocryphal historical writings mention the potestate as early as theViking Age.
The onlypotestates chosen to leadFriesland between theVlie andLauwers wereJuw Juwinga (1396) andJuw Dekema (1494), both were chosen by theSchieringers. However, in 1399 the districts ofWestergo andOostergo elected potestates,Haring Harinxma andSjoerd Wiarda respectively, in the struggle against the count of Holland. The title became well known outside of Friesland only with the installation ofAlbrecht of Saxony ashereditary potestate in 1498; the Frisians choseJancko Douwama as their imperialstadtholder (1522).
