Proof and persuasion in history : a preface -- Europe, or How to escape Babel / Maurice Olender -- Quests for a scientific mythology : F. Creuzer and K.O. Müller on history and myth / Josine H. Blok -- The footnote from de Thou to Ranke / Anthony Grafton -- Narrative, irony and faith in Gibbon's Decline and fall / David Wootton -- The rhetoric of artifacts and the decline of classical humanism : the case of Josef Strzygowski / Suzanne L. Marchand