ABSTRACT
Late in the fall of 1555, Rocca Sinibalda, in the eastern Sabine mountains (some four mule-train hours from Rieti), rebelled against its baron and played for papal lordship. The ploy came to naught, but three years of intense local politics left exuberant tracks on Rome’s judicial paper. To papal inquests, at two moments, the village proffered its version of that history, a chronicle of hurts endured and rare deeds done, and, what matters here, of memorable shouts that made a signal difference.1
