This artifcle introduces some of the major historical differences in attitudes towards translation and in actual translation practices of the longue durée known as the Middle Ages. Its focus is largely on England and on English texts, mostly from the later part of this period. 'Vulgar eloquence' is a rough Englishing of the title of Dante's famous Latin treatise on poetics, the De vulgari eloquentia (1304-9), a text that paradoxically (because it is in Latin) addresses the need for an illustrious national poetry in the vernacular. Although Dante's treatise does not directly address the question of translation, it identifies a key concern of translation theory and practices in the later Middle Ages: the status of the various European vernaculars in relation to elite Latin culture.