arte mayor

arte mayor, a Spanish verse form consisting of 8-syllable lines, later changed to 12-syllable lines, usually arranged in 8-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme of abbaacca. The form originated in the late 13th to the early 14th century and was used for most serious poetry in the 15th century. It fell out of general use by the 16th century. The word is from the Spanish, short for versos (coplas) de arte mayor, literally, “verses of greater art.”