Vernacular literature
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Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the "common people".
In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin. In this context, European vernacular literature appeared during the Middle Ages.
The Italian poet Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, was possibly the first European writer to argue cogently for the promotion of literature in the vernacular. Important early vernacular works include Dante's Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (both written in Italian) and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (written in English). Indeed Dante's work actually created in part the Italian language.
The term is applied to works not written in the standard and/or prestige language of their time and place.
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