Humanities have always produced models in order to interpret the world. Despite this constant, the computerization of their practices, their methodologies and their concepts, introduces a new form of modelization that requires an epistemological analysis. The introduction of formal calculation on objects of study bearing no formalization questions the relevance of quantitative approaches of the Digital Humanities. This article explores the model and its mediation between the world and the scholar. The model is therefore a pretext to reiterate the dichotomy of calculable and non-calculable, of syntactic and semantics, and finally the ontological status of knowledge.