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This article examines the importance of graphic representations in the socialsciences, and particularly in (medieval) history, taking as its starting pointa reflection by {\'E}tienne-Jules Marey, a physiologist and pioneer of19th-century photography and cinema. Marey believed that the visual shouldreplace language in many fields. Indeed, the twentieth and early twenty-firstcenturies saw an exponential multiplication of visual media, particularly withthe advent of digital technology. However, this ''graphics revolution'' has notaffected all disciplines equally. Significant differences remain betweenscientific fields such as astrophysics, anthropology, chemistry and medievalhistory, despite their shared commitment to describing dynamic processes andchanges of state. Yet, while historians have already digitized a large part ofthe cultural heritage from Antiquity to the 10th-13th centuries, exploration ofthis corpus using visualizations remains limited. There is therefore untappedpotential in this field.This article begins by outlining a typology andquantification of the past and potential roles of visual representations inmedieval history. It examines two distinct intellectual approaches: 1. the useof visuals to support a scientific discourse (majority) and 2. the constructionof a historical discourse based on observations made from visual figures withthe aim of modeling phenomena invisible to the naked eye. The author thusexamines the use of ''images'' in medievalism, focusing on the annual volumesof the Soci{\'e}t{\'e} des historiens m{\'e}di{\'e}vistes de l'enseignementsup{\'e}rieur (SHMESP), up to 2006. Two other parts of the text look at thestill-rare forms of visual representation in medieval history, particularlythose with a ''heuristic vocation'', using iconographic objects, parchments,buildings and digitized texts. The article suggests various visualizationtechniques, such as network analysis, the creation of ''stemmas 2.0'' andinteractive chronologies, which could benefit the discipline. These methodscould potentially profoundly change our understanding of ancient societies, byshowing the dynamic relationships between different aspects of these societies.One of the most important advances expected from these visual methods is abetter understanding of the patterns of development in medieval Europe, whichvaried from region to region. The hypothesis is that the scarcity of heuristicgraphics in medieval history stems from the relationship with ancient documentsand the historical method based on narration and exemplarity. The article thusquestions the value of ''visual modelling'' in medieval history, and highlightsthe challenges associated with the widespread adoption of this approach in thehumanities and social sciences. Finally, the text invites us to reflect on thenature and functioning of heuristic visual devices, by comparing medieval''images'' and contemporary scientific visuals. In both cases, the point is tomaterialize the invisible in order to show something that exists beyond thevisual. The author suggests that this way of approaching visuals could play agrowing role in the decades to come, particularly in the field of data science.

Why modeling? The visual as a reflection of intellectual perspectives in medieval history