Note 394 — Chapter V
Reading edition
The phases of this progress from ottonari to ottava rima have been carefully traced by D'Ancona (op. cit. vol. i. pp. 151-165). Ottonari are lines of eight syllables with a loose trochaic rhythm, in which great licenses of extra syllables are allowed. The stanza rhymes a b a b c c. The sesta rima of the transition has the same rhyming structure. The Corrotto by Jacopone da Todi, analyzed above, shows a similar system of rhymes to that of some Latin hymns: a a a b c c c b, the b rhyme in ato being carried through the whole poem.