Sicilian octave

The Sicilian octave (Italian: ottava siciliana) is a verse form consisting of eight lines of eleven syllables each, called a hendecasyllable.

Although only the final two rhymes are different from the much more common ottava rima, the two eight-line forms evolved completely separately.

Boccaccio, who popularized and may have invented the unrelated ottava rima, used the Sicilian octave a total of once, in his early romance Filocolo.

Qui, d'Atropos il colpo ricevuto, giace di Roma Giulia Topazia, dell'alto sangue di Cesare arguto discesa, bella e piena d'ogni grazia, che, in parto, abbandonati in non dovuto modo ci ha: onde non fia giá mai sazia l'anima nostra il suo non conosciuto Dio biasimar che fè sí gran fallazia.

Here, having received Atropos's blow, lies Giulia Topazia of Rome descended from the high bloodline of witty Caesar, beautiful, and full of every grace, who, in childbirth, abandoned us in a manner that ought not be: thus, our minds will never have enough of cursing her God, unknowable, who might make such a great error.