One of the chief magistrates of the Italian republics in the Middle Ages.

A mayor, alderman, or other magistrate, in some towns of Italy.

potestas] A deputy appointed to govern a town or community by a superior, e.g., in the 1250s the Hungarian Ban of Dalmatia appointed a podesta in each town to represent him. (Fine, John V.A. Jr. The Late Medieval Balkans, 625)

The Chief Justice of Florence

any of the governors of the Lombard cities appointed by Frederick Barbarossa; a chief magistrate in any of various republics, such as Florence

Podesta is a phantom island reported by the Italian Captain Pinocchio of the vessel Barone Podestà in 1879 claiming it to be just over a kilometre in circumference located 1390 km due west of Valparaiso, Chile. It was originally located 900 miles west of Chile's coast. The island was charted falsely until 1935 when it was removed from charts.