The Magical Number Seven and the Early Romance Poetry

Abstract

Our capacity to perceive and memorize information is limited to approximately seven (plus or minus two) elements. An element can be defined either as a single bit or as a coherent sequence of organized bits. This article hypothesizes that, even without explicit theorization, such a rule was working on the earliest writers who first handled accentual prosody, i.e. the 12th and 13th century European poets. In their poetry, one can note a general trend to move towards a “seven-unit disposition” of syllables, verses and strophes. Another evidence of my hypothesis is shown by the greater prevalence rate of this disposition in orally-spread poems than in written ones.