In this short introductory study we attempt to account for the fact that the Book VI from Julius Caesar Scaliger's Poetics is justly acknowledged as a rich repertoire of literary theory applied to Latin poetic production from Antiquity to the 16 th century. Scaliger is truly innovative when we compared his work to analogous Renaissance poetics. A remarkable aspect of that innovative spirit lies in a literary conception that, though recognizing the paradigmatic value of the Ancients, also values

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... the production of more modern authors, be it for the quality of the structure of content or for the correction, sobriety and vigour of their writing. For literary criticism to exist as a science, it is necessary to find and clearly define the universal foundations of judgements of value applied equally to all authors at all times.