Leonardus [Léonard] Bonot [Barre] {Paul III-Paul IV}
Tenor; Limoges; admitted 13 July 1537 ; mandati : July 1537 -August 1555 . On 30 July 1555 , Bonot/Barre, along with Palestrina and Domenico Ferrabosco, was excluded from the choir because of his married state [See Document...]. The three singers were granted monthly pensions of 5 ducats 87 baiocchi, and remained in the mandati lists in a special category eventually labled "coniugatis." Bonot/Barre is listed there from September 1555 -September 1560 . In September 1555 , he asked permission to become the maestro di cappella at San Lorenzo in Damaso at the same time Palestrina asked permission become maestro at San Giovanni in Laterano.
There is a problem about this singer's last name. Although often listed as Barre, he actually signs himself "Leonardus Bonot" at the end of VatS 611[fol. 32r] and is occasionally listed under that name. This may raise questions about his identification with the composer Leonardus Barre, whose motets and madrigals can be found in a number of manuscript and printed sources, and his possible relationship with other people named Barre, in particular the printer and composer Antonius Barre, active in Rome in the middle 16th century and the singer Alessandro Barre who joined the chapel in 1574 , and in 1577 was described as having been born in Rome of a French father (seeAlexander Barre). Antonius Barre could possibly be have been a brother or cousin (although he came from a different diocese than Bonot/Barre), but considering that we know that Bonot/Barre was married, it is quite possible that Alessandro was his son.
DOCUMENTS
DS 1
55r: entry dated 13 July 1537 [CASIMIRI (1926), pp. 10-11]
Eodem die fuit admissus in cantorem Leonardus Bare a Paulo tertio pontifice maximo necnon a veneribilis viro d. Bartholomeo Croto capella S. pontificis magistro in sacrista Sancti Marci presentibus d. cantoribus superpellitio indutus ut moris est atque iuravit in forma etc.
entry dated 15 July 1537 [CASIMIRI (1926), p. 11]
Eodem die d. Leonardus Bare soluit sua regalia scilicet decem ducatos aureos racione participandi omnium regalium preterea duos pro superpellitio.
DS 4
91v: entry dated 30 July 155 [CASIMIRI (1937), p. 26]
Eodem die fuerunt exclusi de capella Leonardus Barri et Dominicus Ferrabosco et Jo. Luis Palestrina quia sic voluit papa et dedit motum proprium illis ut de cetero non serviant in capella quia sunt uxorati et in loco ricompensa papa jusit illis dare scuta sex in ogni mense pro colibet. Omnia ista sunt facta in presentia omnium.
95v: entry dated 25 September 1555 [CASIMIRI (1937), p. 29]
Eodem die in plena congregatione habuerunt licentiam d. Leonardus Barri et d. Jo. Luis Palestrina ut unusquisque possit servire de magistro capelle videlicet Leodardo in Sancto Lorenzo in Damaso et Palestrina in Sancto Joani Laterano ut melius valeant.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: CELANI, p. 99; CASIMIRI ; FREY, Die Diarien, p. 132; STEELE , John. "Antonio Barré: Madrigalist, Anthologist and Publisher in Rome--Some Preliminary Findings." In Altro Polo: Essays on Italian Music in the Cinquecento , edited by Richard Charteris (Sidney, 1990), pp. 82-112.