This essay deals with the relation between philology and philosophy, pointing out the human knowledge and the concept of erudition behind the modern development of "Literae" from Pico della Mirandola to Alberti, Barbaro and Bruni, from Poliziato to Valla. In the development of this inquiry I also consider the tension between the particular and the general in Vico's thought and the new "Ars Critica" illustrated by Le Clerc and Perzonius' criticism.