This paper challenges the long-established belief that only a dozen professorsrefused to take the oath to the Fascist regime in 1931. It provides evidence thattheir number is higher, although still undetermined. It argues that the narrative oftwelve refusals was instrumental to a political account of the event, and that it wasconstrued on biased information initially provided by the regime. We suggest thatthe actual effects of the oath on Italian scholarship have been partly concealed bythis narrative; and we propose to look at it as an instance of a group of bills thattriggered a considerable number of refusals, heavily impacting Italian science andacademia.