Note 187 — Chapter III · THE FIRST WARS AND FIRST REFORMS OF THE FLORENTINE COMMUNE.144

Ficker often gives the names of these Imperial Podestà, as gleaned from the depositions of witnesses. Vide Ficker, vol. iii. p. 440. Hartwig (ii. 192) cites one Henricus comes florentinus, also mentioned by Stumpf and who seems to have been a Podestà of the contado in September, 1186. After all this, it is not surprising that the Imperial authority should be often referred to in documents of the latter half of the twelfth century. We may cite some instances from the rolls of the Florence Archives: October 14, 1175 (Passignano), "Sub obligo Consulum Florentinorum vel Nuntio Regis"; October 9, 1185 (Passignano), "Sub duplice pena Imperatoris et eius Missi aut quicumque habuerint dominium pro tempore." (Reference is here made to the contado, and is another proof of the uncertain rule previously described by us.)