This article examines the manner in which Edward Gibbon attempted to mould his public image for posterity, while writing and rewriting the various versions of his autobiography. It highlights Gibbon’s attempts to anticipate the critical reading of his memoirs and fashion his public image, not least regarding his attitude toward religion. It also discusses, in this context, his views on the proper manner of writing history, and how they developed throughout his intellectual career, specifically in relation to his great historical work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This assessment of Gibbon is then used to criticize the “historicist” critique of Enlightenment historiography, which has blamed Gibbon and other Enlightenment historians for being improperly subjective in discussing past eras. In contrast with this view, the modernity of Enlightenment historiography is emphasized.