borrowed it, acknowledgment was generally made.  Dante, in his De Vulgari Eloquentia, informs us concerning the structure of this musical setting:  it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the diesis or volta; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in rimes and in the arrangement of the lines.  If the first part of the stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called pedes, and the musical theme or oda of the first pes was repeated for the second; the rest of the stanza was known as the syrma or coda, and had a musical theme of its own.  Again the first part of the stanza might be indivisible, when it was called the frons, the divided parts of the second half being the versus; in this case the frons had its own musical theme, as did the first versus, the theme of the first versus being repeated for the second.  Or, lastly, a stanza might [25] consist of pedes and versus, one theme being used for the first pes and repeated for the second and similarly with the versus.  Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of tripartition in the following three forms:—­

I

1st line     }
2nd   "      }   Pes
3rd   " etc. }

1st line } 2nd " } Pes 3rd " etc. } Diesis or Volta

1st line } Syrma 2nd " } or Coda 3rd " etc. }

II

1st line } 2nd " } Frons 3rd " etc. } Diesis or Volta

1st line } 2nd " } Versus 3rd " etc. }

1st line } 2nd. " } Versus 3rd " etc. }

III

1st line     }
2nd   "      }   Pes
3rd   " etc. }

1st line } 2nd " } Pes 3rd " etc. } Diesis or Volta

1st line } 2nd " } Versus 3rd " etc. }

1st line } 2nd. " } Versus 3rd " etc. }

These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante himself notes (De Vulg.  El., ii, 11); many variations were [26] possible.  The first seems to have been the most popular type.  The poem might also conclude with a half stanza or tornada, (French envoi).  Here, as in the last couplet of the Arabic gazul, were placed the personal allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the joglar usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the razos.