The Palace of the Podestà in Florence, now the Bargello museum

Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state (like otherwise styled counterparts in other cities, e.g. rettori "rectors"), but also as a local administrator, the representative of the (Holy Roman) Emperor.

The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power. This development of a term meaning "Power" or "Authority" to be eventually the title of the person holding such power^[1] is parallel to the development of the Islamic term "Sultan".

Italian history[link]

The first documented usage of podestà was in Bologna in 1151, when it was applied to Guido di Ranieri di Sasso of Canossa, brought in from Faenza to be rettore e podestà, noted in numerous documents.^[2] 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 him praetor as being above the others, or podestà., as having every authority and power over the city."^[3]

Podestàs were first more widely appointed by the 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 second imperial diet at Roncaglia, November 1158, Frederick appointed in several major cities an imperial podestàs "as if having imperial power in that place"^[4] The elected consuls, which Frederick had claimed the right to ratify, he began to designate directly. The business of the 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 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, rather like the older consuls (but not collegial). 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.^[5]

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 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 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 (southeastern France, the former province Gallia Narbonensis).

An anonymous writer composed a short guide for the would-be podestà (though it would be unseemly to appear openly to run for the office), Oculus pastoralis, of about 1222;^[6] 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 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 chapters touches upon making war (in a paragraph), and the training up of urban officials.

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, massari/bailiffs, 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. In 1926, by a decree of Mussolini's Senate,^[7] Fascism tried to revive the term by calling the 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 Frisia 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 life. ^[8]

Podesteria[link]

Literally this derived word means the office of a podestà or its term, but Podesteria can also designate a district administered by a podestà within a larger state.

In the 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, podesterias were one of the intermediate levels of the hierarchical administrative organization, the highest ('provincial') level being the territorio (roughly a modern administrative region).

After the other dogal republic, Genoa, was in 1273 granted control of Pera and Galata, commercial suburbs of Constantinople, by the Byzantine emperor, it governed them jointly by a common podestà until 1453, when all Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks.

Frisian Potestaat[link]

The concept of a local man empowered to represent the 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 podestat or imperial governor from among the chieftains, to organize and lead the defense of two of the three districts of Frisia, in Middle Frisia, from the Flie to the Lauwers and in East Frisia from the Lauwers to the Weser, later the Countship of Ostfriesland

The Frisians probably became aware of the Italian title of podestà (Dutch: potestaat, German: Potestat, English: potestate) during the Sixth Crusade in 1228. According to privileges that were falsely ascribed to the Carolingian era, the 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 potestates chosen to lead Friesland between the Vlie and Lauwers were Juw Juwinga (1396) and Juw Dekema (1494), both were chosen by the Schieringers. However, in 1399 the districts of Westergo and 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 Albrecht of Saxony as hereditary potestate in 1498; the Frisians chose Jancko Douwama as their imperial stadtholder (1522).

See also[link]

• Capitano del popolo
• Capitano reggente
• Gonfaloniere
• Doges of the 'crowned republics', Genoa and Venice
• Potentate

References[link]

• Brouwer, J.H., J.J. Klama, W. Kok, and M. Wiegersma, eds., Encyclopedie van Friesland, (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1958) s.v. Potestaat van Friesland.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "Frisians"
• Janet Hongyan Woo, "Tension in Siena : Site Selection and Room Arrangement of Piazza Pubblico"
• 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)
• WorldStatesmen - Turkey
• William Francis Thomas Butler, Lombard Communes: A History of the Republics of North Italy (1982)

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

Walter Bonatti in 1954

Walter Bonatti (Bergamo, 22 June 1930 – Rome, 13 September 2011) was an Italian mountain climber. He is noted for a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955 and the first solo winter ascent of the Matterhorn north face in 1965.

Life and career[link]

Bonatti on Gasherbrum IV summit, 1958

Bonatti was born in Bergamo. Famed for his climbing panache, he pioneered little known and technically difficult climbs in the Alps, Himalayas and Patagonia. At the age of 21, Bonatti in 1951 made the first ascent of the Grand Capucin, an extraordinary red granite pinnacle in the Mont Blanc massif, from 20 to 23 July. This was the climb that brought him to public notice. Aged 18, he had made the fourth ascent of the formidable North Face of the Grandes Jorasses with very poor equipment over a period of two days. Among his notable climbs were a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru in August 1955,^[1] the first ever ascent of Gasherbrum IV in 1958^[2] and the first solo winter ascent of the Matterhorn north face in 1965. Bonatti was awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for saving the lives of two fellow-climbers in a disaster in the Alps. He authored a number of books about climbing and mountaineering. Bonatti died of pancreatic cancer^[3] in Rome on 13 September 2011 at the age of 81.^[4]

K2 controversy[link]

Bonatti was at the center of a climbing controversy about the first ascent of K2 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. Along with Hunza climber Amir Mahdi, he carried oxygen cylinders to Lacedelli and Compagnoni at Camp IX for the summit attempt. Bonatti was later accused by Compagnoni of using some of the oxygen, causing the climbers to run out of oxygen on summit day. Using this supplemental oxygen would have been impossible for Bonatti, as he had neither mask nor regulator. Bonatti would cite two summit photos to support his response that Compagnoni had lied about running out of oxygen in route to the summit. Although Bonatti's account of the bivouac is supported by Lacedelli in K2: The Price of Conquest (2004), Lacedelli contends that the oxygen had in fact run out. However, he attributes this not to Bonatti's alleged use of the oxygen, but to the physical exertion of the climb causing the summit climbers to use more oxygen than expected.^{[citation needed]}

Another aspect of the controversy was the Bonatti-Mahdi forced bivouac of July 30, 1954. Compagnoni's decision to place the final camp (IX) at a higher location than previously agreed caused the problem. When Bonatti and Mahdi climbed up to deliver oxygen to Compagnoni and Lacedelli for their summit attempt, Mahdi's condition had deteriorated. Unable to descend with Mahdi, Bonatti needed the shelter of Camp IX's tent. The tent was placed high up, over a dangerous traverse to the left - not at the agreed location. Unable to traverse safely to the tent, Bonatti and Mahdi endured a forced bivouac in the open at 8100 meters; it cost Mahdi his fingers and toes. Compagnoni gave the reasonable explanation that his decision to move the tent was to avoid an overhanging serac.^{[citation needed]}

However, it is argued that he also had an ulterior motive: to avoid Walter Bonatti. Bonatti was in the best physical condition of all the climbers and the natural choice to make the summit attempt. If he had joined the summit team, he would likely have done so without the use of supplemental oxygen. If he had succeeded, any summit by Compagnoni would have been eclipsed. Although the Bonatti-Mahdi forced bivouac was not anticipated, Compagnoni intended to discourage Bonatti from reaching the tent. At 6:10 pm the next evening, Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli reached the summit of K2, using the supplemental oxygen Bonatti and Mahdi had brought them. Ardito Desio, in his final report, mentioned the forced bivouac only in passing. Mahdi's frostbite was an embarrassment to the expedition. The Italian government provided Mahdi with a small pension for his contribution and sacrifice on the first ascent of K2. Bonatti never reconciled with Compagnoni, owing to Compagnoni's allegedly false accusation that Bonatti used the oxygen intended for the summit attempt. He wanted to climb K2 "solo, alpine style, and without oxygen".^[5] He might well have succeeded. Two decades later, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler astonished the mountaineering world by climbing Mount Everest without bottled oxygen.^{[citation needed]}

Mountaineering achievements[link]

• The north face of the Grandes Jorasses (1949)
• The east face of Grand Capucin (1951)
• The north faces of Tre Cime di Lavaredo in winter (1953)
• The southwest pillar of the Aiguille du Dru (The Bonatti pillar) (1955)
• Grand Pilier d'Angle (with Tito Gobbi) (1957)
• Gasherbrum IV: First Ever Ascent (1958)
• The Red Pillar of Brouillard (1959)
• Rondoy North - Patagonia (1961)
• The north face of the Grandes Jorasses in winter (1963)
• The north face of the Matterhorn: solo and in winter (1965)

Books[link]

The Mountaineering Books of Walter Bonatti

• Le Mie Montagne (My Mountains), Walter Bonatti, Bologna: Zanichelli, 1961
• I Giorni Grandi (The Great Days), Walter Bonatti, Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1971
• Magia del Monte Bianco (Magic of Mont Blanc), Walter Bonatti, Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1984
• Processo al K2 (Trial on K2), Walter Bonatti, Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1985
• La Mia Patagonia (My Patagonia), Walter Bonatti, Como: Massimo Baldini Editore, 1986
• Un Modo di Essere (A way of Living), Walter Bonatti, Milan: dall'Oglio Editore, 1989
• K2-Storia di un Caso (K2 - The Story of a Court Case), Walter Bonatti, Bergamo: Ferrari Editrice, 1995
• Montagne di Una Vita (Mountains of a Life), Walter Bonatti, Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1995
• K2-Storia di un Caso (K2 - The Story of a Court Case), Walter Bonatti, 2d ed. Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1996
• In terre lontane, Walter Bonatti, Baldini & Castoldi, Milano, 1998 [1st ed 1997]
• The Mountains of my Life, Walter Bonatti, Modern Library, 2001. ISBN 0-375-75640-X
• K2. La verità. 1954-2004, Walter Bonatti, 2005, Baldini Castoldi Dalai editore. ISBN 88-8490-845-0.
• K2. Lies and Treachery, Robert Marshall, 2009, Carreg Ltd. UK. ISBN 978-0-9538631-7-4.

Other

• On the Heights. Hart-Davis, 1964. ISBN B0000CMDRK
• Magic of Mont Blanc. Gollancz, 1985. ISBN 0-575-03560-9
• K2 (Italian). Baldini e Castoldi, 1998. ISBN 88-8089-072-7

References[link]

External links[link]

• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in UKClimbing.com

Rossana Podestà (born 20 June 1934 in Tripoli) is a former Italian actress.

Life[link]

She was born in the Italian colony of Libya, where she spent her first years in Tripoli and later moved to Rome after World War II. Rossana Podesta still lives in Italy, in Dubino (Sondrio province). She lived with the famous mountain climber, explorer and journalist Walter Bonatti; he died on September 13, 2011.

Acting career[link]

Podestà's most memorable role was as Helen in Helen of Troy, produced by Robert Wise in 1956. She could not speak English so she learned her lines by rote with a voice coach. The movie gave Podestà international exposure, and she performed alongside a young Brigitte Bardot. Thanks to her starring in the Mexican film Rosanna (film), she became very popular in Latin America.

Podestà also worked in the movie Ulisse, directed by Mario Camerini, and in the sixties and seventies she acted in some romantic movies, including Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato. Her last performance was in 1985's Segreti segreti, directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci.

She married and then divorced movie producer Marco Vicario.

Movies[link]

• 1951: Domani è un altro giorno
• 1952: Il moschettiere fantasma
• 1954: Le ragazze di San Frediano
• 1955: Ulysses
• 1956: Helen of Troy
• 1956: La spada e la croce
• 1960:La furia dei barbari
• 1961: La schiava di Roma
• 1962: Solo contro Roma
• 1962: La freccia d'oro
• 1963: Sodom and Gomorrah
• 1962: La vergine di Norimberga
• 1964: Le ore nude
• 1965: F.B.I. operazione Baalbeck
• 1965: Sette uomini d'oro
• 1971: Homo Eroticus
• 1971: Il prete sposato
• 1974: The Sensual Man
• 1980: Sunday Lovers
• 1983: Hercules
• 1985: Segreti, segreti

See also[link]

• Libyan Italians
• Helen of Troy (film)

External links[link]

• Biography

Guido Podestà (born on 1 April 1947 in Milan) is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for North-West with the Forza Italia, part of the European People's Party and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. He was elected president of the province of Milan on 2009/06/22, replacing the centre-left candidate Filippo Penati, whom he beat in a runoff vote.

He is a substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

Education[link]

• Graduate in architecture
• Member of the Presidential Committee of Forza Italia (since 2002), national official responsible for 'European enlargement and relations with Eastern Europe'

Career[link]

• since 1994: Member of the European Parliament
• Vice-President of the European Parliament (1997–2004), with responsibility for relations between the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the 15 Member States, relations with the enlargement countries, Balkan non-candidate countries and the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union
• Chairman of the EP Intergroup on senior citizens
• President of the province of Milan

See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Italy)

External links[link]

• European Parliament biography of Guido Podestà (incl. Speeches, Questions and Motions)
• Declaration (PDF) of financial interests (Italian)

This article about a Member of the European Parliament from Italy is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Italian opera composer. A native of Catania in Sicily, his greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and I puritani (1835). Known for his long-flowing melodic lines, for which he was named "the Swan of Catania", Bellini was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera. He died in Puteaux, France at the age of 33, nine months after the premiere of his last opera, I puritani.

Life[link]

Born in Catania, Sicily, Bellini was a child prodigy from a highly musical family and legend has it he could sing an aria of Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months. He began studying music theory at two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could apparently play well. Bellini's first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, it is certain that Bellini grew up in a musical household and that a career as a musician was never in doubt.

Having learned from his grandfather, Bellini left provincial Catania in June 1819 to study at the conservatory in Naples, with a stipend from the municipal government of Catania. By 1822 he was in the class of the director Nicolò Zingarelli, studying the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce a promising student to the public with a dramatic work: the result was Bellini's first opera Adelson e Salvini an opera semiseria that was presented at the Conservatory's theatre. Bellini's next opera, Bianca e Gernando, met with some success at the Teatro San Carlo, leading to a commission from the impresario Barbaia for an opera at La Scala. Il pirata was a resounding immediate success and began Bellini's faithful and fruitful collaboration with the librettist and poet Felice Romani, and cemented his friendship with his favored tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, who had sung in Bianca e Gernando.

Bellini's cenotaph at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris

Bellini spent the next years, 1827–33 in Milan, where all doors were open to him. Sparking controversy in the press for its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys, La straniera (1828) was even more successful than Il pirata, and allowed Bellini to support himself solely by his opera commissions. The composer showed the taste for social life and the dandyism that Heinrich Heine emphasized in his literary portrait of Bellini (Florentinische Nächte, 1837). Opening a new theatre in Parma, his Zaira (1829) was a failure at the Teatro Ducale, but Venice welcomed I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which was based on the same Italian source as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The next five years were triumphant, with major successes with his greatest works, La sonnambula, Norma and I puritani, cut short by Bellini's premature death just nine months after the premiere of I puritani. Bellini left London for Paris, but never completed the journey back to Milan.

Bellini died in Puteaux, near Paris of acute inflammation of the intestine, and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, Paris; his remains were removed to the cathedral of Catania in 1876. The Museo Belliniano housed in the Gravina Cruyllas Palace, in Catania, preserves memorabilia and scores.

The central relationship in Bellini's life was with Francesco Florimo (1800-1888), from a village close to Catania, and the two shared a close correspondence. After Bellini's death Florimo was treated as his spiritual heir. Herbert Weinstock^[1] felt it "inescapably suggests to modern readers a homosexual attachment". However, John Rosselli^[2] rejects this idea, seeing it more as a romantic friendship.

Works[link]

In 1999, the Italian music publisher Casa Ricordi, in collaboration with the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, embarked on a project to publish critical editions of the complete works of Bellini.

Operas[link]

Songs[link]

The following fifteen songs were published as a collection, Composizioni da Camera, by Casa Ricordi in 1935 on the centenary of Bellini's death.

• Six Early Songs:
  • "La farfalletta" – canzoncina
  • "Quando incise su quel marmo" – scena ed aria
  • "Sogno d'infanzia" – romanza
  • "L'abbandono" – romanza
  • "L'allegro marinaro – ballata
  • "Torna, vezzosa fillide" – romanza

• Tre Ariette:
  • "Il fervido Desiderio"
  • "Dolente immagine di Fille mia"
  • "Vaga luna, che inargenti"

• Sei Ariette:
  • "Malinconia, Ninfa gentile"
  • "Vanne, o rosa fortunata"
  • "Bella Nice, che d'amore"
  • "Almen se non poss'io"
  • "Per pietà, bell'idol mio"
  • "Ma rendi pur contento"

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vincenzo Bellini

Biography portal

Other important bel canto opera composers:

• Gioachino Rossini
• Gaetano Donizetti
• Saverio Mercadante

Sources[link]

• Casa Ricordi. Edizione Critica delle Opere di Vincenzo Bellini (Italian)
• Rosselli, John (1996). The life of Bellini. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-46781-0
• Willier, Stephen Ace (2002). Vincenzo Bellini: A guide to research. Routledge. ISBN 0-8153-3805-8,

References[link]

1. ^ Herbert Weinstock, Bellini: His life and his operas, 1971
2. ^ John Rosselli, The life of Bellini, 1997, University of Cambridge Press

External links[link]

• Bellini cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
• Free scores by Vincenzo Bellini at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Vincenzo Bellini in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Vincenzo Bellini in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania
• Vincenzo Bellini at Find a Grave