Verso de arte mayor (Spanish for 'verse of higher art', or in short 'arte mayor') refers to a multiform verse that appeared in Spanish poetry from the 14th century and has 9 or more syllables. The term 'verso de arte mayor' is also used for the 'pie de arte mayor', which is a verse composed of two hemistiches, each of which has a rhythmic accent at the beginning and the end, separated by two unstressed syllables.
Originally, it was - in contrast to the shorter 'verso de arte menor' (Spanish for 'verse of lower art') – a long verse of eight to 16 syllables, which later developed into a regular 12-syllable verse with four stressed syllables and a medial caesura.
The verso de arte mayor came to maturity in the 15th century with Juan de Mena’s didactical-allegorically epic poem “Laberinto de Fortuna” (1444). The couplets of this poem, the so-called “Octavas de Juan de Mena”, consisted each of eight arte mayor verses. In the 16th century, the verso de arte mayor gave way to the Italianate hendecasyllable.[1]
