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In Medieval times, it was used to refer to texts written in the vernacular of the writer's country instead of the standard language of literature, science, and theology, Latin. During the later days of Greco-Roman cultural supremacy, "vulgar latin" was used to refer to the vernacular dialects that sprung from Latin across the Roman Empire - the predecessors of the modern Romance languages. One of the earliest pieces of great European literature written in vulgar was Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The major step in the liberation of academia from Latin was the Protestant Reformation which advocated giving Mass (liturgy) and reading from the Bible in vulgar languages. Following in the footsteps of the Reformation, some proponents of the scientific revolution began to establish the precedent for writing in vulgar.

See also

• Vulgar Latin
• vulgateThe Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. Jerome on the orders of Pope Damasus I. It takes its name from the phrase vulgata editio "the edition for the people" (cf. Vulgar Latin), and was written in an every