A cobla esparsa (Old Occitan: [ˈkobla esˈpaɾsa] literally meaning "scattered stanza") in Old Occitan is the name used for a single-stanza poem in troubadour poetry.
They constitute about 15% of the troubadour output, and they are the dominant form among late (after 1220) authors like Bertran Carbonel and Guillem de l'Olivier.
[2] Whether such exchanges should be regarded as a "genre" unto themselves, as a type of short tenso, or as coblas esparsas, one of which happens to be written in response to the other, is debated.
The Cançoneret de Ripoll distinguishes between the cobles d'acuyndamens, which bonds of vassalage, love, or fidelity, and cobles de qüestions, which posed dilemmas.
The acuyndamentum was a special bond of vassallage-fidelity in medieval Catalonia.