In 1931, none of the Florentine academics refused to take the oath of allegiance to Fascism, as very few did throughout Italy. Yet, just six years earlier, the signatories of the so-called Croce manifesto from the University of Florence were more numerous than those from Rome and Turin. The leggi fascistissime crushed open dissent; pressures, recommendations, and violence isolated and silenced it. In the specific context of the university community in Florence, this article examines the different behaviors of its members: surrender, responsibility, conformism, resistance that remained in the shadows, social, gender and racist discrimination, voluntary and forcing removal, opportunism. A history of which we still do not know enough, and whose consequences would go beyond the fascist ventennio.