podesta

podesta, (“power”), in medieval Italian communes, the highest judicial and military magistrate. The office was instituted by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in an attempt to govern rebellious Lombard cities. From the end of the 12th century the communes became somewhat more independent of the emperor, and they began to elect their own podesta, who gradually superseded the collegiate government of consuls. Usually selected from another city or distant feudal family to ensure...