La Metric heterodoxy in Coplas de los pecados mortales as a sample of Juan de Mena’s compositive orthodoxy

Abstract

This paper establishes the metric usus scribendi of Juan de Mena through the analysis of all his compositions. Mena’s metric regularity is astounding and indisputable, both in his socalled major works and in the minor ones and, indeed, the presence of metrically heterodox verses alerts of a plausible point of textual disruption. The analysis of his entire production following this line of thought allows to suggest new edition proposals for various texts from a global perspective, although the main objective of this article is to propound that the heterodox stanzas of Coplas de los pecados mortales may be an example of Juan de Mena’s first creative phase, not yet corrected.