Footnote:

A comprehensive and enlightening discussion of these topics appears in Raya Cohen and Joseph Mali (eds.) Literature and History, Jerusalem, The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History (1999). Unfortunately for most readers of the present article, this handsome collection has been published only in Hebrew.
On p. 13, Mali provides useful references to classical works on the literary conception of history throughout time, among them:

• G. Collingwood, The Idea of History, Oxford, 1946, pp. 1-45.
• M.I. Finley, "Myth, Memory and History', in The Use and Abuse of History, London, 1986, pp. 11-33.
• A. Momigliano, Studies in Historiography, London 1966.

Calculating the Limits of Poetic License:
Fictional Narrative and the History of Mathematics
Leo Corry - Tel Aviv University