Hilarius [Hilaire] Penet {Leo X}
Poitiers; earliest reference, listed as a boy singer, along with Jean Conseil and Pierre de Monchiaron, in the household of Elzéar Genet (Carpentras), the maestro di cappella, in a rotulus of 1 May 1514 ; called "cantor capellanus" in a bull of 4 April 1516; a member of the musici segreti , August 1519-May 1520; left Rome in May 1520; unpublished beneficial documents : RS 1582, fol. 61r: supplication dated 22 October 1517 ; see FREY for bulls dated 19 April 1515 and 4 April 1516 .
Penet is probably not the composer of the Mass ascribed to "Hillaire" in VatS 16; it seems more likely that this and other works ascribed to "Hillaire" in the late 15th and early 16th centuries were composed by Hilaire Bernoneau, maître de chapelle of the French royal chapel in 1510-14 (SHERR). On the other hand, the motet Ascendens Christum in altum, published in the first book of the Motetti della Corona in 1514 and ascribed to "Hilaire", with its high tessitura (suitable for an ensemble of boys) and its contrapuntal irregularities, might indeed represent an early work by Penet produced in Rome for himself and his colleagues to sing. None of the other works that can be ascribed to Penet exist in Vatican sources (for a work list, see TNG).
DOCUMENTS
RAS, Camerale I 859bis
45r:entry dated 12 August 1519
Hilario Penet
Motu proprio etc. Cum nuper dilectum filius Hilarium Pennet clericum Pictavensis diocesis in musicum nostrum secretum recepimus ipsumque dilectorum filorum Jacotini Level, Firmini Le Clerc, et Francisci Vanelst aliorum cantorum nostrorum secretorum nuper per nos receptorum numero et consortio favorabiliter aggregaverimus ac provisionem sex ducatorum auri de camera quolibet mense sibi constituerimus et assiganverimus idcirco vobis dilectis filiis Jacobo Ponzetto electo Malfetansis thesaurario nostro generali ac presidenti et clericis camere nostre apostolice percipimus et mandamus quatenus dictos sex dicatos de pecuniis eiusdem camere per manus Phi. de Strozzis et sociorum illarum depositarum eidem Hilario quolibet mense persolui ac mandata de super opportuna expediri faciatis et curetis incoandi die prima presentis mensis augusti et sic singuli mensibus temporibus futuris in contrarium facientibus non obstantibus quibuscumque. Datum Rome in palatio apostolico die duodecim eiusdem mensis augusti 1519 pontificatus nostri anno septimo
RAS, Camerale I, 859
115v: undated motu proprio [May-June 1520]
Pro Hilario Penet
Motu proprio etc. Cum sicut accepimus dilectus filius Hilarius Penet clericus Pictavensis diocesis cantor noster secretus pro nonnullis suis peragendis negotiis per aliquod tempus intervallum a Romana curia necnon se absentare habere Nos propterea eidem Hilario ut itinerarum impensam tam eundo stando quod redeundo et alii ad accesuum huiusmodi neccessaria comodius prefertur valent de alicuius subventione auxilio providere volentes dilecto filio Philippo Strozi depositario nostro generali omnibus quod aliis et singulis ad quod huiusmodi negotium spectat et pertinet in virtute sancte obedientie et sub exomunicationis penes districte precipiendi mandamus quatenus visis presentibus dilationem et curationem et continuationis cessantes solutionem stipendiorum prefati Hilarii per uno anno proximo futuro ad ultimi solutionem proxime preteriti computatum illam nutiri per eidem Hilario realiter et cum effectu det et exsolui et provident et exsolunt contrariis non obstantibus quibuscumque
Placet J
BIBLIOGRAPHY: FERRAIOLI, Alessandro. "Il ruolo della Corte di Leone X (1514-1516)." Archivio della Reale Società Romana di Storia Patria 34-41 (1911-1918), esp. 34 (1911): 391; FREY (1955): 178, 420; GEHRENBECK, David. " ‘Motetti de la Corona’ A Study of Ottaviano Petrucci’s Four Last-Known Motet Prints (Fossombrone, 1514, 1519)." Ph. D. dissertation, Union Thological Seminary, 1970, vol. 2, pp. 472-481; CHARLES, Sidney R. "Hillary-Hillayre: How Many Composers?" Music and Letters 55 (1974): 61-69; SHERR, Richard. "The Membership of the Chapels of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne in the Years Preceding their Deaths." The Journal of Musicology 6 (1988): 61-64.